Cold Hearted Lover
by yumny
Summary: As Stephen comes to Japan, he finds himself falling in love with a vampire. Suddenly, he has to deal with hunting werewolves, lusting vampires and a supernatural romance. Contains coarse language, adult themes and violence - but no Edward or Jacob.
1. Bad Intuition

About three things I was absolutely positive.

First, Haneru was a vampire.

Second, there was a part of her – and I didn't know how dominant that part might be – that thirsted for my blood.

And third, I was unconditionally and irrevocably in love with her.

For several weeks now, I had been on this high school in this little harbor village, Mashike. Nearby Otaku, the island of Hokkaido, Japan. A huge high school with an exchange program and the perfect place for outsiders to get to know Japan – despite the fact it was cold, dark and depressing around here.

When at school, she had immediately caught my attention. This western, pale-faced girl – she looked so well taken care of, and her hair was always wonderful. Of course, those were mere details in comparison to her face, this divine face which belonged on the catwalk.

Haneru Dolcesconi, Croatian exchange student who had taught herself Japanese.

In this short time I had been here, I always wondered what a girl like Haneru was doing in a place like this. Most exchange students went to the south, or to the big cities. Only losers would go here, right?

No, she never talked to me, though I showed great interest in her. She seemed incredibly shy, starting to giggle neurotically, even when I just said "Hi."

And she was smaller than me; she was so cute, so perfect.

My biggest wish was to keep her fragile body to my own all day, to protect her and love her. But somehow, something told me she didn't need protection.

No, I'd never been insecure about my looks. But since Haneru Dolcesconi stepped into my life, I spent hours just looking at myself in the mirror, desperately trying to convince myself I was worth her.

I couldn't convince myself. There was I; this lightly tanned skin, dark eyes, dark hair, well trained body. I took care of myself swiftly enough, but it was never enough, never.

Even guys got jealous on girls like Haneru; this soft skin of hers, this shiny oak-colored hair, her pretty face and her incredible body.

I'd have girlfriends before, oh yes. Lots of them. But none of them had been like Haneru.

My mom in Germany, she had spoken to me over the phone lately. I had told her about Haneru, and she had just stated that she didn't tend to trust such girls. 'Girls like that are poisoned, I swear. They are unfriendly, rude, brainless or they have sex before marriage.'

Don't think I'd ever listen to my mom, and don't think I'd think sex before marriage was a sin.

Haneru was different from what my mom had warned me for anyway. She was sweet and shy and my friends claimed she'd never had a boyfriend. 'Nothing's good enough for her.' they had said.

But I thought there was more.

And then, that one day, I was serving the cafetaria, and she was right there, blushing.

Next to her best friend Yumna Reem. A tall, dark-skinned Afro-Norwegian.

Both of them made my heart thump, as both of them were perfect, cute and popular in their own way, but of course Haneru made my heart thump just a little, little hell of a lot higher.

'Could you, er, get me a sandwich?' she said muffled. Her face was all red and she wasn't even looking at me.

'Right away, ma'am.' I said, trying to make her laugh, in my crappy Japanese. I walked to the other side of the kitchen to get a sandwich, while I saw Yumna hit Haneru on her shoulder, laughing.

Hikaru, one of my friends, was serving the cafetaria too. 'That's your chance, mate.' he added while giving me the sandwich. 'You go for it.'

I could hear he was serious. That was a suprise; he had been into Haneru for two months and now he had finally seemed to give up.

I handed the sandwich to Haneru. She initially pushed it Yumna's way, who destroyed the covering plastic shockingly fast with her tall nails.

Haneru was about to turn around and walk away when I touched her shoulder. She moved her face to mine.

'Would you.. like to have a drink with me, Haneru?' I said. Now I could feel myself get super red. But those words had slipped now, I couldn't possibly take them back.

My breath stopped when I waited for her to answer.

'Well, er..' she began, but Yumna pushed her. 'Hane, _please_.'

'O.K. Sure. When and where?' she stuttered.

I felt like my heart could thump out of my chest. 'In the sake-bar, right after school?'

'Great. I'll be there.' she said, seemingly refinding her confidence before she ran away.

I could swear I heard someone scream next.

'You're causing quite the commotion, dude.' Hikaru said, cynically.

'You get why?' I asked and pulled my hand trough my hair. Would she really like me back?

My heart was seriously killing me when I finally entered the sake-bar.

I didn't lose time into searching for her. I could see where she was instantly; she sat at a small, wooden table, surrounded by friends, all exchange students.

Yumna was, of course, next to her, rubbing her arm, as if Haneru was nervous too. Couldn't imagine that.

And there was Serge, the French dude who made girls faint just by walking past. But he was so perfect, and showed so little interest in girls, there were plenty rumors about him being gay.

Next to him was a tiny Greek girl, Melita. Next to her, Timothy, the American, talking to Haneru's sister Malia, a girl not gifted with intelligence and with slight overweight. Timothy was so clearly annoyed.

The last person I saw, and the first person to see me, was Yumna's Taiwanese boyfriend Calvin Sean.

He was overly smart, just like Yumna, wore sexy glasses and was known for protecting Yumna with his life. Such a perfect boyfriend – whoever said something bad about Yumna could forget about their school reputation, and probably their health too.

All of them were stunning – all of them got me so jealous.

'Hi there.' I said, confused. I knew I talked to soft for anyone to hear me.

My shyness in situations with many people had overwhelmed me, but it seemed everyone had heard me loud and clear.

Yumna was the first one to get up and leave. She quickly said hi before being followed by Calvin.

Timothy and Malia winked me, while Melita could only give a distant glare. Serge was the last one to leave, with a mysterious Mona Lisa-smile, when I took place on the little table in front of Haneru.

'So er, hi.' I tried, and looked at Haneru.

She didn't look back, and spitted a tiny "Hi" while keeping her eyes on the ground.

'You would like me to order something?'

'Hm?' She looked up, blushing. 'Oh yes, sure, sure.' She looked away again.

I asked the waitress for two sake shots and turned back to her, trying to remember the opening sentences I had studied. 'You had a good day at school?' was the only one I could think of.

'Kinda. I had an A+ for Math.' she smiled. She looked like a doll when she smiled.

Her eyes finally met mine. I noticed her eyes were strangely coloured – they were amber brown with a strong yellow glance, and a certain desire in this glance. 'How was your day?'

'Nothing special. I messed up my test Japanese.' I said.

'Hahah.' she laughed, high pitched. 'So your Japanese is.. not so good?'

'It's crap. _Gomenasai_. You know, I'm German, Japanese is so difficult.'

'_Ach so. Sollen wir Deutsch sprechen, dann?'_ she reacted, in fluent German.

'Sure, if you don't mind speaking German.' I laughed, utterly surprised. What kind of girl was she?

The waitress arrived with our shots. 'Please visit again.' she demanded before leaving.

In one movement, Haneru grabbed her shot and throw it into her throat, swallowing the whole shot at once. I gasped and stared with eyes wide open.

'You always do that?'

'Oops.' She put her hand for her mouth. 'I guess that was kind of impolite. Sorry, yeah, I'm used to that.'

'So shall we talk?' she continued.

'Yeah, so er..' Panicking, I thought of the talk subject list I had produced during History class.

'So why do you hang out with the other exchangées only?' I asked. 'I wanted to know that like forever.'

'Oh, that.' she said. She sounded like she was pleading guilty for something.

'Well, it's not like I don't like the Japanese. They just have – bad influence on me.'

I grinned. 'So why are you in Japan, then?'

'Sometimes, you need a change of environment.' she grinned back. 'And I love Japan. It's only – Japanese guys give in so quickly and so easy. That's not healthy. Not for me.'

It made me think of the call I had with my mother. 'Would you have sex before marriage?'

'You getting personal?'

'Sex is easy to talk about. Especially when nobody gets a word we're saying.' I laughed.

She laughed back. I had succeeded into making her laugh, I was a genius.

'Pfff. Well, I don't think I have anything against that, though it's kind of cool to get married as a virgin.'

'My parents are really strict in such things, you know. They want me to marry a virgin.' I said.

'Okay.' she reacted and fell silent. I took a small taste of my shot.

My fantasies took me somewhere else.

'I gotta leave.' she suddenly said. 'Sorry.'

'So fast already?' I asked. 'You're not enjoying yourself?'

''M sorry. I promised Melita and Serge to join them for their trip to Otaku tonight. We gotta leave in time.'

'Kay. Have fun, then.' I said. 'But that reminds me:'

'What?'

'Can I.. have your cell phone number?'

'Thought you'd never ask.' she said and grabbed my hand, leaving a small piece of paper in it with her number. Her touch felt stone cold, but I was astonished by this intimity, though it could barely be called intimity, for the rest of the evening.

'Something wrong?' my host father asked. 'You're so silent.'

'I dated a girl today.' I confessed and kept eating.

My host sister Erika squeeled in disbelief and dropped her cutlery.

'Oh my god FINALLY! Who's the lucky girl?'

'Calm down, Erika. He doesn't have to share his private life.'

'No, she may know. It was Haneru Dolcesconi, you know her?' I said. Of course she'd know her in a village as small as this.

'Oh yes. Yeah.' she said, and sounded disappointed.

'What's wrong?'

'I'd hoped you'd date a.. you know, a real girl.' she said.

'That's enough, Erika!' my host father shouted.

But I hadn't heard enough. 'What's wrong with Haneru?'

My host mother looked kind of worried. 'Nobody in the village really likes those immigrants. You know, Haneru and her sister Malia, this Yumna Reem, her boyfriend Calvin, this tall blonde guy.. Serge de la Romée.. and Timothy Jones.'

'Please _don't_ forget this Melita Cephisso, she's the real wacko deal.' Erika added in an attempt to be funny.

'You should show some more respect, Erika!' my host father said. He was now really angry.

'Cephisso-dono may have her curiosities, she's wiser than her years and she discovered this horrible disease your mother had! If it wouldn't have been for her, your mom would've been dead! Off to your room, no more food until you learn to respect people who earn that.' He had difficulty keeping his anger under control.

While Erika sighingly climbed the stairs, he turned to his wife. 'And you should not forget that too, my dear. Those Europeans didn't bring us anything but good.'

She sighed. 'I'm sorry. But Stephen..' she went on to me.

'No, it's okay. Stop it.' I said and continued my dinner.

After finishing doing the dishes, I went to Erika's room and knocked on the door.

'Come in.' she said.

'Can I ask you something, Erika?'

'Anything!' she smiled and shut her television down. 'Whatcha wanna know?'

'Okay. So what's the big deal about those.. Europeans? You know which Europeans.' I asked.

Erika took a deep breath. 'Well, the funny thing is, as soon as the sun starts shining, Haneru, Melita, Malia and Serge are gone. They say they wanna take profit of any nice weather on the beach. And in the winter, they go hiking when the sun shines. That's weird, right?

'Though they're not the only ones being strange. Nobody can find Yumna, Calvin and Timothy in the weekends, it's as if they disappear. And once on a monday, Timothy returned to school with a blood spot in his shirt. He was so shocked when we told him and thought of a silly explanation fastly. It was so weird.'

'So you think they are a freakshow?'

'They are.'

'And what about Melita, then?' Not that I liked Melita anyway.

'Oh, Melita. She is quite something. She talks like she's lived for centuries, like a philosopher, always in a formal matter. She speaks impossibly many languages. And if she wants you to do something, you'll do it, whatever it is. But I kind of owe her, she discovered a tumor in my mom's head.'

'That's cool, yeah. What's her age?'

Erika laughed. 'We always joke about that. We say physically, she's about 24. Mentally, she should be like 120, or something.'

'And when did, _The Europeans, _move in?'

'Half a year ago. They live in host families outside the village's borders, next to eachother.'

'They came together?'

'Yeah, they said they already knew eachother. That's something to pull off if you're from five different countries, don't you think?'

Next morning I felt far from fantastic. The whole night, I had been dreaming about Haneru, restlessly.

Haneru and I had been living in a pink cloud castle, but Melita and Erika attempted to destroy it, together with my parents and host parents. Luckily, we were saved by the school teachers, who were wearing -

not that it was important anyway.

School had become difficult for me. The only thing I did was waiting for the breaks to come.

Hikaru was annoyed like hell with me, as I was not really there. I was dancing in my thoughts, not here, not in reality.

'You can't think of anything but that damn girl?' he asked. I was silent.

As soon as the break finally started and I spotted her, sitting at her favorite table, and again my blood started streaming quicker.

I just couldn't find the words to describe her, the graceful way she sat there. The school uniform she was wearing seemed to be _designed_ for her divine body.

When she waved to me, my heart stopped and I choked, making my other friends Chen and Reon giggle like girls. Haneru threw a kiss hand to me, which almost had me faint.

'You know,' Chen started, 'I heard Melita doesn't like it you had a date with Haneru.'

'Bad for her. Why should she care about us? She's too old.' Reon said, clearly amused.

'Dunno.' Chen answered. 'She seemed super pissed yesterday.'

I didn't listen to them; my cell phone buzzed and I saw I had a new text message: _See me after school in the supermarket ;)_

I didn't have to look to know who that was from. Of course I accepted.

'Nice of you to come.' Haneru smiled when I pushed open the supermarket doors. She kind of scared me, because I hadn't seen her standing behind that door when I started pushing.

'Yeah.' I said and felt myself blushing. 'So what would you like us to do?'

'Don't really know. What about chatting and getting you some sweets?'

'Sounds good enough for me.' I said. If I would be an anime character, my eyes would've been replaced by thumping hearts right now.

So we moved to walk around in the store. 'So let's talk.' Haneru said.

'There's a lot I want to talk with you about.' I grinned and accidentally touched her hand.

So. Cold.

'Are you cold?' I asked, trying to sound casually.

'Not at all, thank you?' she answered, surprised.

That only made me more curious, but then she interrupted my thoughts with whispering: 'Melita.'

'What?'

'Don't you dare to turn around now. She's right behind you.'

We rounded the corner and as soon as we were 'safe', I peeked. In the supermarket's corner, past the pay desks, there was this tiny figure with her huge lips and straight black hair. Even though it was only for a second, her cold eyes met mine and made goosebumps run over my arms.

'Jeez. What's her problem?' I whispered, scared.

'I have no idea.' Haneru said with a faint tone of anger in her voice. 'She doesn't want us to interact. Not like I care.'


	2. Can't Blend In The Party Vibe

That evening, Chen, Reon and I decided to go for a guys night out. It was eleven PM and it was freezing while we where waiting for the bus to come, which was going to take a decade, or so it seemed.

'So how are things with Haneru?' Reon asked gently, undoubtly aiming to hear more than he asked for.

'No complaints.' I answered, 'we've only been going out twice, remember?'

'Yeah, off to the _supermarket_, how romantic.' Chen giggled when adding a slight melody to the word 'supermarket'. 'Oh my dear, shall we buy bread? Yeah, my love, and cheese too!' he went on theatratically. Reon and I started snickering initially. Chen's hilarity was hard to resist in a somehow threatening situation like this. Some way I felt not comfortable at all, standing here at night at this deserted bus stop.

As soon as silence fell, a noise behind me caught my attention, and I turned around to catch a little movement in a bush. 'You scared of the big bad wolf?' Chen growled and imitated a wolf's howl.

But I felt a huge shot of relief when the bus finally arrived and we were able to exit the cold night's air.

While greeting the bus driver, I could swear I heard some more noise behind me.

It didn't take us long to reach Rumoi's single night club, but somehow I couldn't feel excited about it. No girl seemed to be as intriguing as Haneru had been to me and I stuck to drinking beer.

I was somehow bothered by the fact that my friends were having a great time. Chen and Reon lived like they'd die tomorrow, drinking way above their legal limit and dancing with as many girls as possible.

I envied them when they fell to the floor, as drunk as they could be, shouting irrational things and touching girls where they shouldn't be touched. I wish I could enjoy myself the way they did right now.

And the most annoying thing was, I had always enjoyed myself that way. Always – until Haneru Dolcesconi entered, and tore apart, my life. Everything that I had embraced with so much enthousiasm before seemed childish and irresponsible now, and I knew this was all because of this one girl.

This one girl I was so desperately wanting to be with – this one girl I was missing so strongly I couldn't stop drinking craploads of alcohol, trying to let my feelings fade away so I could forget and have fun.

The feelings didn't fade. They didn't become even an inch less powerful than they were. I missed Haneru, I wanted to feel her cold, marble skin and let my fingers glide trough her soft, perfect hair.

It was about 4:30 AM when the party finally ended. I can't remember how we ever managed, but we left the club and entered the street feeling enormously tired and drunk in every way.

Still, I couldn't help but notice a gang of handsome-looking Japanese guys talking to people around us. Chen tried to tell me to ignore it, or that's what I thought, but he didn't manage to speak properly as we dragged along to the bus stop. However, as soon as we got there, four of the gang members were waiting for us.

'You guys had a good time?' the tallest guy, his hair bleached blonde, asked. His tone was quite friendly to my surprise, still I was very well aware this could mean no good.

Still quite unable to speak, we frankly ignored him, but he didn't give in. 'Perhaps you got some money left for us?'

'To what goal?' I finally asked.

'Actually, my friends and me need to buy some good stuff. But yeah, we got no money left, ya know, so we thought, maybe you could be generous.'

I gasped as I studied his face and discovered his wide, amber colored pupils. Surely, those were a drug users' eyes.

One of the other gang members suddenly pointed a knife at us. 'You would be the first ones to not be generous, ya know.'

'And we won't force you to give the money. If you don't give it, we'll _take_ it.'

Chen and Reon stepped back, causing me to be in front. Obvious reasons; I was the tallest one.

I tried to get my brains to think clearly, but I was still too dazzled by the alcohol. Bluffing was the best I could think of. 'You actually dare to threaten Europeans?' I spoke, pulling out my best poker face.

'Got no problems with that, lad.' the guy with the knife snickered. 'How long's it taking ya to get the freakin' money?' He stepped forward incredibly fast and stroke my hand quickly with the point of his knife.

Little drops of blood gushed out of my hand almost immediately.

'There you got it. We could also just kill you.' the gang leader said, but suddenly he seemed to freeze.

When I turned around, I got why. Right behind me stood a pale, blonde European with dark, piercing eyes. Those eyes were focused on the gang leader, who was at least two feet shorter than him.

I heard Reon's double tongued voice, curiously asking: 'Serge de la Romée?'

'You scum.' Serge spoke with his beautiful, slightly French accented voice. 'Disappear or you'll know what will happen.'

'Yes, we know what would happen, Serge.' the gang leader said, seemingly confident with himself. 'We most certainly do.'

'What is your point into stepping onto those gentlemen?' I suddenly heard someone say. It was an even more beautiful, light and soft female voice. I would recognize Haneru's voice out of thousands of others.

I turned to see her, but my vision was heavily blurred. She stood too far away, still my heart thumped with excitement. As she came closer, I could see that she looked stunning as ever. She was such a godlike creature!

The gang leader's eyes focused on Haneru. 'You do seem to care a lot about them, Haneru Dolcesconi.'

I was too drunk to be confused about them knowing Haneru and her friends. 'Certainly, Taiyo.' she spoke.

'And you know, you should be scared. We got a few more tricks upon our sleeve this time.'

I looked around me, expecting to see what she had meant. The only things I saw were Chen and Reon's frightened faces. Different from me, they didn't seem to feel safer.

Taiyo laughed. 'You brought more of your kind? That won't affect us. You see the way we expanded our ranks.' He pointed at his little gang friends. There were about eleven of them now. It was indeed way to many to deal with. I couldn't imagine Haneru and Serge fighting them off, despite that whatever trump card they had.

'Those sucky _newborns_.' Serge laughed. 'You honestly expect them to be useful?'

'You shut up right now, Serge!' Haneru shouted angrily, making me curious about "newborns" even more.

'Now, Taiyo, what we meant is entirely different.' she said. 'Actually we brought you some cute dogs.'

From the corner of my eye I saw two figures moving towards us fastly. It took me some time to recognize them as Yumna and her boyfriend Calvin before they rushed into us.

'You call them dogs?' I asked super curious. This situation was getting stranger any second.

'Now this is _odd_.' Yumna sighed. 'They attacked you, Stephen?'

I nodded stupidly. 'Those gangster people, actually.' But as if she would think Haneru attacked us.

'We'll settle things fast enough. I heard a lot about you, Taiyo.' said Yumna and offered her hand.

Taiyo accepted and they shook hands. To my utter surprise, they even granted eachother a small bow.

'Why don't we settle things in the woods near here, then?' he responded to her, his eyes now focused on Calvin. 'That should be a once-in-a-lifetime experience.' Calvin said enthousiastically.

'I'll stay with the boys here, then.' Serge offered.

'No way. You go have fun.' Haneru disagreed. 'I'll take care of things here.'

And within mere seconds, Yumna, Calvin, Serge, Taiyo and his people had disappeared. I felt like fainting and emberassingly enough, I did.

And emberassment was the first thing I felt when I opened my eyes again. How could I be stupid enough to faint? What should people think of a guy fainting after going out?

Then I realized I was in my host parent's home. I felt I was lying on the couch in the main room, but suddenly, Erika's face filled my vision. 'Mom! He's awake!' she screamed.

'Please, Erika. I'm having a serious hangover.' I admitted shamefully and tried to keep my headache under control. I horribly failed, but at least Erika left.

It was then I noticed I was still not alone. There was someone sitting next to the couch, on a chair. To my surprise, this peculiar person was Yumna Reem.

'What the hell are you doing here?' I asked her impolitely. My headache was making me rude and I cursed myself for speaking like that to her. Who knows what she had pulled off to get me home safely!

She didn't answer, which kind of allowed me to study her looks carefully. She was wearing a short little dress and enormously sized high heels, which laid focus on her beautiful, overly tall brown legs even more.

How did she ever find high heels in this shoe size?

'What are you looking at?' she said unfriendly.

'Your shoes. They're nice.' I said, and felt incredibly dumb.

'Yes. They're US size 10, I can see your surprisement.'

'I bet you're not here to talk about your shoe size?' I asked carefully, not wanting to upset her any more. I thought it should be clear girls with size 10 wouldn't want to discuss their feet. It should probably be considered a handicap for a girl.

'No. I'm not. I brought you home after you went crazy this morning.'

'This morning? What time is it, then?'

'Don't overreact. It's just past noon.'

I sighed and got myself up. 'What happened? My memories are vague.'

'You got drunk. You started imagining things and you fainted. Calvin and I were there too. We took you and your pals home at the backseat of Calvin's BMW. You owe us.'

That was not what happened for sure. 'Haneru was there too. And some dangerous guys who threatened us. Even Serge was there!'

Yumna sighed deeply and pulled her right leg over the left one. 'No they were not, just believe me.'

'You are a dreadful liar. I possess those round things people call eyes, for your record.'

In reaction, she turned her face towards mine, drowning me in her spotless chocolate cream skin which smelled nearly as wonderful as Haneru's.

'You listen to me for once. I know the truth's different, but swear not to speak about it, please. Not another word. Please just believe that Haneru, Serge and those gangsters weren't there.'

'You can't just force me to believe otherwise!'

'Oh, I can.' Yumna said with a deeper undertone in her velvet voice. 'I'll tell you the following; if anything ever reminds Haneru or anyone else of that night, you have to put an immediate stop to dating her.'

'You spoke to Chen and Reon, too?'

A slight grimace played around Yumna's lips. 'Nope. They weren't as difficult as you were to – believe otherwise.' She rose up from her chair and drifted off quickly.

Next day at school things weren't like they used to be. Like Yumna had told me, Chen and Reon couldn't remember anything from the night out we had. Just vague details, and their descriptions made me wonder how much and how in anyway Yumna had messed with their brains.

In the breaks, Haneru wouldn't look at me. Every time I'd throw my glance at the table she was seated, she'd look away, as if she was embarassed. But what was there for her to be embarassed of?

The only one looking back was Melita, who was in school all the time now for some reason, even though she was beyond school age. She kept throwing me dirty looks until I'd gave up on making eye contact with Haneru.

The week went on like that. It was considerably boring and frustrating, not being able to talk to Haneru, being watched carefully all the time by this Melita person. And on top of that, my friends didn't remember anything at all, it was killing me.


	3. Early Phase Night

That Friday I felt intensely pained. My head was taking me over, my body was losing control now. I longed for this girl's body and soul so badly, there was no stopping it. Desire was my ultimate key.

I lied in my bed, not being able to fall asleep, just like any other day I had not spoken to her.

Not only was my heart aching, my body was aching harder. I realized, emberrassed to hell, I was heavily sexually attracted to this girl as well. I was not sure my stuff could handle seeing her again.

And then suddenly she was there.

I opened my eyes, and stared right into hers. For seconds, she was there, on my bed, nothing more but a sheet keeping my naked body from hers. And then she was gone.

'Don't go away' I whispered, shocked.

'I won't.' her clear voice broke the silence. 'I'm right here.'

'What are you.. doing here?' I asked and tried to find out where she had gone, only to realize she was sitting next to me on the bed.

'I wanna try and work things out with you, you know.' she said in a tender voice, as if she was afraid to speak. I could almost feel her skin colour red.

'In the middle of the night, in my bedroom? What the hell were you doing here? Don't misunderstand me, I would rather die than have you go away now, but what were you doing here?' I ranted.

'Like I said.. we need to work things out.' she said. 'Can I ask you something?'

'What?'

'You know I like you, don't you?'

'Yes.' I said the word with much confidence and I wanted to shout how much I loved her back.

'I was wondering if... you would be my boy.'

'Haneru.' I sounded melodramatic.

She kissed me.

Her cold stone lips touched mine and it felt much like kissing a statue. I didn't care about this odd situation. I just cared about this tension that was exploding trough my body. This was so good. She was so good. Everything was so perfect.

She kissed aggressively, she was not very kind. It was quite the challenge for me to kiss her back, and I gave up soon. I was not used to a girl overpowering me, especially not if the girl was two feet smaller than me. But I didn't care. She could do everything she wanted with me, I wouldn't care as long as I was with her.

'So now it's official.' She pulled herself back and looked me in my eyes.

My breath stopped when gasping at her so beautiful eyes.

'I have something I want to tell you.'

'Yes, Haneru?'

'I'm not like other girls.'

There was no need for her to tell me. Even if she would be a 100 year old Dracula vampire, I wouldn't care.

'Of course not. I love you.'

'No, I mean I'm different.' she said and moved a slight bit away.

I didn't buy it. I shoved myself next to her, pushing the sheets to cover my private parts.

'What are you talking about?' I asked carefully.

Then I noticed the tears in her eyes. My heart stopped and I put my arm around her ice-cold shoulder. 'What's going on? Did I send you to tears?'

'We shouldn't meet. Melita was right. I'm so sorry for ever entering your life.' she sobbed.

I had no air left. 'Why would you ever listen to Melita? You just declared your love for me.'

'Yeah, I did.' she answered. 'And that was wrong, I'm sorry. I'm a monster. I can't be with you.'

'Don't talk nonsense. I wouldn't even care if you were born with a penis.'

My own words almost sent me to laughter, but I realized I really wouldn't care.

'It's almost as odd. Did you have the slightest idea of what happened that Saturday night?'

'Well, there were those strange gangster guys you and Yumna saved us from..?'

'Exactly.' she hissed trough her teeth. 'And Yumna couldn't manage to change your memory. You're really something, you know. I think I ought to tell you the truth.'

'Change my memory? Truth? Are you.. joking around with me?' I was sure that whatever she was going to say I wouldn't get angry. I just couldn't.

'Nope. Actually, I.. didn't you notice? My skin is cold and so hard. I'm so fast. I'm here, your window wasn't even open. I won't tell you, I will let you find out what I am.'

'I have no clue. Seriously.'

'You know, those guys back in Rumoi. You know what they really aimed for?'

'Drugs? My money, to buy it?'

'Your blood.' she said coldly. 'That's why they struck your hand. You know, if it hadn't been for Serge, you would've been killed within ten seconds from that point. You and your friends would've been sucked dry, wiped away, destroyed, removed from space.'

'That doesn't sound very.. friendly. Almost like they were vampires.' I laughed.

She didn't say anything. She just nodded in response.

'You know Stephen, your smell is so.. appealing. And Taiyo still wanted to avenge something, so he took on you. With a bunch of newborns. You should've seen their eyes. They couldn't stand your smell. Seriously, the moment the other guy took your blood, you should've been dead.'

'They were.. vampires?' I pronounced the word like it was a horrible disease.

'And so am I. I think you ought to know the truth, like I said. So I'm gonna do a lot of talking from now.'

It surprised how it didn't bother me in the least that Haneru just stated she was a vampire. I initially believed she was speaking the truth – it all kind of made sense now.

'So there you go. I was born Jagoda Tesla in Tekeriš, Yugoslavia, in 1897.'

'You – what? 1897?'

'As I told you. I am a vampire, and my kind does not age from the moment they are.. _created_.'

'I see. That would make you over hundred years old, technically saying I'm dating an elderly person.' I said humorously. She didn't laugh and added, on a serious tone: 'My mind doesn't age, either. It's like I'm frozen.' She had me touch her lovely skin. 'And if you feel my temperature, I kind of am. My heart doesn't beat, you know. Blood keeps my alive. But I'm kind of a vegetarian – I don't do humans.' She grinned.

This was getting uncomfortable. 'So that's why you said you better not hang out with Asian guys?'

'You really are quite something to remember that. Correct, they appeal me too much. I'd suck them dry as soon as they'd allow me to touch them. At least, that's what I thought. But you appeal me more than anyone before and yet.. I can fight my killing desire with ease. It's so strange.'

She sighed. 'This Taiyo person.. oh well, I'll tell you about that later. Let's continue my story.'

'Yeah!' I yelled like a child being told a fairytale. Was I taking this seriously or was I dreaming?

'So anyway. I was born Jagoda Tesla in this sucky little place in Yugoslavia, in 1897. But then, the First World War started. And I met a girl called Malia.'

'Malia?'

'Malia was a vampire, yes. She was an Italian. She later confessed to me she had gone to the battlefield to lunch on dying soldiers, but that doesn't matter. She was not that smart, but she liked me a lot. We could hang out really well. She was easy to talk to and she was funny in so many ways. She wanted me to be her best friend soon enough, and I agreed, because she was so good to me. She always managed to bring me food and protect me from harm.

'She had never intended for me to become a vampire. She knew how to change someone – she had seen it before. But she was not quite a vegetarian yet, and she was afraid she would kill me. But then, near my home, the battle of Cer started. A huge battle between the Allied Countries and Austria-Hungary – you know anything about the First World War?'

'Not so much.' I confessed blushing. I still felt as if I was told a cute fairytale.

'Anyway. It was a huge battle, so Malia got pretty excited. She took me to the battlefield, she didn't want to leave me alone. And then I was shot.'

'What?'

'I was shot. A Hungarian soldier had shot me in my chest, and I was passing away quickly. I could feel I was dying, it was horrible. Than Malia came to me. I could see the desire in her eyes, but somehow she won it over. And she told me, "I don't ever want to lose my best friend". She bowed to me, I thought she was going to kiss me goodbye, and then I felt her teeth sinking in my neck.'

'_Malia_ changed you?'

'It was the most painful thing ever. At first, she couldn't stop sucking my blood. But she managed – and I am still grateful for that. She loved me too much to kill me, but of course she could've killed me accidentally very easy. But it didn't matter, I was dying anyway.

'And so the venom spread trough my body. She took me somewhere safe and explained I was becoming a vampire. I couldn't believe what I heard. As soon as my pain was gone and my transformation was finished, I went crazy. I raged trough Europe. I killed over two hundred people. Innocent, poor people. So horrible.'

My eyes widened at her horrified expression. It was clear she _did_ regret that.

'Malia stayed with me no matter what. She helped me, and a year later, I finally refound myself. We agreed we would only feed on dying soldiers, and so we did. But there were other vampires, too.

'There was something of a vampire war going on at one point. Everyone wanted bodies and blood. It was crazy, but we survived. We fled to Greece, the two of us, to somewhere we couldn't sense any other vampire. But then, we ran into Melita.'

'What year was that?'

'1918, four years after my transformation. We were feeding on animals, the war was quite finished. And than we met her. We fought her, but we couldn't win, and asked her not to destroy us. We told her we were vegetarians, trying to live with humans in peace. I had adopted Malia's extraordinary ability for that.

'And Melita believed us. And she invited us to stay with her, she was very kind.

'She kind of became our mother and bigger sister. She was older than us, not only physically, also literally. She is ancient, you know. She turned into a vampire before Jesus was nailed to his cross.'

'Seriously? Is there no limit to how old a vampire can become?' It still seemed natural for me.

'Don't really know. Guess not. Mel's a kind of mythological Greek princess- Princess Melita Cephisso of Phocis, to be specific, born around 1200 BC.'

'What about Serge?'

'Serge was already with her that time. You know, Mel had followed our strategy too. She had been a vegetarian until wars started, and so she had been feeding herself in the French Hundred Years War too. That was a war that occurred around the 1420's, the late Middle Ages, in France.'

'That has something to do with Serge?'

'Yup. You know Mel was good with humans too, she only fed on the dying ones. So she befriended a very special woman in the war. You probably know her. She was called _Jeanne D'Arc_.'

'You're kidding.'

'Nope. Mel was on really good terms with Jeanne. She helped Jeanne trough the war, killing some of her enemies. You thought an underaged medieval girl could handle a war herself?'

'I thought it was just a legend, actually.'

'Well anyway. Jeanne really cared about this soldier of hers, a plain boy from her village, Serge de la Romée. And then the guy was wounded fatally in battle. He was dying and asked Jeanne to never forget about him, but she cried and cried and asked Mel to please take care of Serge. Melita kind of did. She couldn't refuse Jeanne's request and changed Serge.'

'So you're technically saying I was saved from vampires by Jeanne d'Arc's boyfriend.'

'Would be, if he weren't gay. You can't imagine how happy he is this century is so open-minded.'

'Whew.' I puffed. 'Amazing story.'

'Not finished yet. Weren't you curious about my name changing?'

'I bet it's nothing important – you took on Malia's name, right?'

'Yeah. And I started to call myself Haneru in the late 1990's – before that, I was just.. Jagoda.' She seemed to shiver at the idea of someone calling her Jagoda.

'Why?'

'Because I.. well, it isn't really cool to say so as a vampire, but I have a sick obsession with Japan, Japanese boybands, anime and manga, Japanese language.. I was so happy when Mel agreed with moving to this place.'

'Oh yeah, that's what you would tell me. This Taiyo person?'

'That's right. Well, I told you Japanese are kind of.. dangerous to me. So when I first entered Japan in 2001, I got in a relationship with Taiyo fastly. He was in one of my favorite boybands, he was cool and handsome, he was everything to me. And then, after a year, we finally had.. intercourse.'

She snickered at the word, but then became very serious again. 'This went so wrong. I couldn't keep myself under control and I bit him. I stopped in time, but he made me go away, and I did, and I cried my heart out. When I got home, Mel forced me to go back and suck the venom out of him. But it was too late. Taiyo was already changing. So I took him home, hoping to make him part of our family as I still loved him. But that was not the case. He confessed he had only liked my body and just wanted to impress his friends with a good looking girl like me. I was heartbroken and that feeling was more terrible than changing into a vampire, really. Even though I don't have a working heart, I could hear it crack right there.

'So Taiyo went his own way, trying to kill me several times from then. The official report was he got killed – actually he killed a lookalike, took pictures of that and made it look like a suicide. After that, he drank the lookalike – okay, that's not interesting. But either way, he still wanted his revenge on me. So when he noticed I had this human I cared about so much, he took his chance and tried to kill you.

'But there's nothing to worry about. Yumna and Calvin took out his whole group of newborns and they almost finished him, too. He went away to the north, I guess.'

I stared motionless at her, trying to rethink all what she had just said. 'Wow.' I just spit out. 'I'm sure I'm dreaming right now.'

'No.' she said. 'I want you to understand that it's bad for us to meet. Who knows what might happen.'

'I trust you.' I said. 'Please don't go away. I never felt this happy before.'

'You're different.' she said and stared blankly in mid-air. 'You know, when one becomes a vampire, one gains a special ability. An ability you had when you was a human, too, but way less significant. For example, Melita had charism and could make people do her bidding very easily when she was human. Now, she can force others to do whatever she wants for her. But it doesn't work on you.'

'Wait – Melita tried to do that with me, too?'

'She tried to make you fall in love with another girl. She tried to wash out your memories, like Yumna tried. She tried to make you leave Japan, even. But nothing worked, and it got her very angry.'

'That's why she is giving me such dirty looks all the time, right?'

'Exactly. She can't stand it. And I – my ability doesn't work on you, too.'

'What's your ability then?' I couldn't believe I was somehow _special_.

'I can draw minds. Give me paper and a pencil, and I can immdiately outline someone's mind, thoughts, ways. Even if I just have a very small piece of paper to scribble on, I'll manage to outline someone. It's handy in battle, you know. I can predict Taiyo's reactions to anything very easily, 'cuz I drew down his mind years ago already. But if I try you, nothing comes to my hands. Just nothing. So you'll have to tell me your story, because I can't get in your mind.'

'I don't have any problems with that. I wanna talk too.' I said smiling.

'Then go on. Tell me, where do you come from and such.'

'That's okay.' I said, and looked at her anxious face for a moment. 'You really are desperate to know, are you?'

'Normally, I'd have drawn an amazing comic of your lifetime in a minute. So yeah, I'm desperate.'

'Well, okay. I was born somewhere in the nineties in Frankfurt am Main, Germany, son to Pakistani immigrants in Germany.'

'That's what I guessed – you look kinda Arabic. But how come your last name's Cavallari, then?'

'I'm not born Cavallari, nor is anyone in my family called like that. Initially, I was born Shareef Shyamalan. I hated that name and I hated my identity. My parents were like – really strict about everything. They told me, don't have sex before marriage, don't marry a girl we don't approve, they even told me _they_ would pick a girl for me. And we lived in a bad neighborhood. Many of my childhood friends competed in criminal activities, used drugs, ignored their parents and their muslim identity.'

'You're a muslim?'

'Not anymore. I guess I stepped off. My friends and I did bad things from when I was twelve years old; we had a lot of sex with a lot of people, we used drugs. When I was fifteen, I started living with my girlfriend in a garage. We used a lot of stuff. And my parents told me they weren't my parents anymore and they only cared for my two younger sisters. It was as if I didn't exist anymore.'

I could see her eyes fill with terror. 'That's horrible' she said.

'Well yeah, I had been horrible too. But when I was sixteen, my father met me again in a nightclub in Frankfurt. He said; "We found a fine wife for you. We'll have her come to Germany. There's nothing to worry about, anymore. You can be or child again." I didn't want to marry someone I didn't even know, but later I regretted I ignored my dad and continued my party. I mean, my parents were strict and a bit over-religious, but they always had wanted the best for me.

'But then my girlfriend came to me and told me she was pregnant.' I stopped there. The memory was too painful.

'She – _what_?'

'She was pregnant. Of course I panicked – we had no home! We were living in a garage, using drugs and having sex all the time. I hadn't thought of this possibility, I was such a damn fool, I panicked, she panicked, it was tragic-'

'Calm down. I'm right here. What happened?' Haneru said, trying to comfort me.

'We made arrangements. We moved to Berlin, to her aunt, and had the kid adopted. I would have wanted to raise it, but my girlfriend said she wanted to leave me and so she did. She said she wanted nothing to remind her of me, that she was sorry, but that she wanted to have a normal life. She left.'

I felt my eyes were watering as I spoke. I hadn't ever told anyone about this.

'So I went to a new high school in Berlin. They helped me, they said I needed to change my life if I wanted to get over this. So they offered me to go to Japan.'

'And you gave in.'

'It was a gift from heaven. Away from everything, everyone. Especially from military service – they would've made me do military service, you know? So I took things one step further-'

'You did what?'

I felt I couldn't continue. 'I honestly tried to start a whole new life. I raised a lot of money and I changed my name to Stephen, which had always been my alias, and my last name to my former girlfriend's last name, Cavallari, and I applied for Japanese citizenship.'

Again I felt my eyes water. 'I knew that had meant I would leave my old life behind for good.'

'That's.. wonderful. I already have Japanese citizenship.' she just said.

My heart thumped up. 'You do?'

'And when will they approve yours?'

'Don't know. They are making me do tests every two months, and I have to fit into Japanese culture, they say. It's difficult, but I know I'll get there.'

'And you have any idea what happened to your baby?' She initially hit her mouth with her hand after she said that. 'Sorry, that was rude. Sorry, I shouldn't have said that.'

'No, it's okay. I don't know what happened to our baby boy, exactly. He was adopted by a Dutch family, I believe. He must be around three years old now, but I don't think of it anymore. I'm no father, it's not my child, really.'

'Aww.' she sighed and bit her lip. 'No, I see that. You just wanna be young.'

'Young? No, I wanna do something good with my life, now I'm Stephen Cavallari, and not anymore Shareef Shyamalan.' I said and felt my voice shuddered. 'I worked hard enough to get here and learn Japanese.'

'Yeah.' she said. 'Yeah, I understand. Shall I leave?'

'You stay.' I demanded and pulled her ice skin towards mine.  
'You put some clothes on, then.' she said. 'I'm no slut, plus I could kill you within mere seconds if I slip.'

'Probably.' I mumbled and walked to my closet. I hoped she was looking away, but I wasn't sure.

I guess she was. There must be _some_ old-fashioned-ness left to her, if she was born two centuries ago?


	4. Seeming Disapproval

That morning, I woke up and she was still there.

'I had a lot of pleasure watching you sleep.' she whispered. 'But I gotta go now. Your host mother is coming.'

She disappeared in seconds before the door was opened. 'Stephen?' I heard my host mother say.

'Will you come down for breakfast soon?'

'I'm coming, Shoko-san. I'll be there in a minute.' I said softly and got up. I pulled some clothes on and went downstairs, immediately feeling there was some strange tension around here.

I looked around the faces of my host family and they all looked kind of worried. Wondering what was bothering them, I sat at the table.

'Good morning.' I said, and they responded directly with a calm 'Good morning.'

'So eh,' my host father began, when I started my breakfast, 'we wanted to discuss something with you.'

'I could've guessed that.'

'Right.' my host father said. 'Now anyway, could you please not go to Rumoi anymore?'

'Why?' said I, and began to think of what happened to us there.

'That Saturday you went there – about ten young boys disappeared. Reports say they had been spotted talking with a Chinese and an African American in the woods and then they were gone. Later they reported seeing fires around there. Something horrifying must've happened, they still haven't been found. Not a trace. It's not safe there anymore, Stephen, and as we care about you, please don't go there anymore.'

My mouth fell open in a huge gasp. I felt very stupid when I closed it back. 'Really? Was it on tv?'

'Yes.' Shoko said. 'So please, for your own safety. And we have some good news too.'

'Some really good news!' Erika shouted. 'You're invited to do a test spoken Japanese this evening, in Sapporo!' She seemed really excited.

'Okay.. so?' I asked nervously.

'If you pass the test, you're a Japanese citizen.' my host father stated and smiled widely.

It got me now. I felt a smile spread along my face. 'My god! That's terrific!'

'I'm so happy for you!' Erika shouted and squeezed me tightly. 'You'll be able to buy your own house and take driving lessons! And you can finally get a job!'

'Don't take things too far, Erika. He needs to pass first.' I heard my host father say.

'That won't be a problem.' Shoko laughed. 'You know who the examinator is, Stephen?'

'Well?'

'Cephisso-san! I'm sure she won't let you fail.'

My heart sank. Melita had always been doing office hours in Rumoi for her job. I was sure she changed her mind yesterday and forced herself into this new job. And she probably forced out this final test, too. In addition, she would force my fail out for sure.

'Yeah, that's great.' I said, trying to hide my sudden concern. 'I need to go to school now.' I got up quickly and headed for the bus stop to school, leaving my new family confused.

I wasn't really there when the bus brought me to school. I had a strange emotion going on around me – a combination of fear, anger and sadness. I couldn't believe this. How could Haneru still believe in Melita?

What a huge bitch this girl was!

At school, I found myself constantly wondering about Yumna, Calvin and Timothy. I was sure they weren't as human as me – they fought off Taiyo's gang, or so Haneru told me. But they surely weren't vampires; their skin wasn't pale (quite logical for Yumna and Calvin, who were black skinned, but still), their eyes weren't strangely colored. Still there was something unnatural about them; they looked heated up all the time, when they entered any space it was like the heat got turned up and they were so _big_.

I had noticed Yumna's length when I was alone with her, but Calvin and Timothy were even taller. I think they were bigger than six feet, and I didn't even dare to look at their feet.

Though that was not really bugging me; Melita was. I had hoped to see her at school, so I could confront her. But she didn't show up, neither did Haneru. I sent her little text messages, but she didn't answer.

I felt terrible as evening neared.

Shoko brought me to Sapporo with her car and I played excited all the way along. We babbled about my future plans in Japan, and I was close to believing I really had a chance to pass this test.

After a long trip, we finally arrived in Sapporo. We parked the car outside the Centre for Immigration and Shoko went to have a rest in the centre's cafetaria.

Nervous of what, and especially who I'd face, I stepped in the room I was appointed.

It was a handsome little room with two desks in it, two modern shaped chairs behind them. Behind one of these desks sat an amazingly beautiful, tiny woman with long, dark hair. She was working on a laptop.

'Ah, mister Cavallari.' she said when I walked in, with her sharp voice. She spoke English with a slight South-European accent, though she must have been speaking it for over hundred years at least.

She turned her face towards me. Her face was shaped with soft, though clearly visible jaws. It had a straight and yet unbelievable handsome nose, dark and perfectly epilated eyebrows, piercing dark eyes and huge, seductive lips which looked a bit botoxed, but were clearly natural.

'Melita.' I said, and I heard my voice tremble. This wasn't going well.

'Nervous, are you?' she added in a casual tone.

'There's nothing to be nervous about. You're gonna screw me anyway.'

She acted like she was surprised. 'Who is gonna – _screw_ – anyone this night, boy?'

'You. Me. You don't want me to pass. You want me to stay away from Haneru, don't you?'

'Who is telling you that, Stephen?' I heard her clear voice.

'I know it's true, Melita. The way you look at me at school. Back then in the supermarket and now this? It would be an enormous coincidence if you weren't here on purpose, you.. _bitch_.'

The word slipped out of my lips before I could stop it. But I didn't intend to take it back.

A tiny smile played around Melita's giant lips. 'I certainly am a - _bitch_ - to do this, yes.'

'Than what is your point? Seriously, just let me do this freakin' test, I'll pass!'

'Ah.' She smiled again. 'But I needed to talk to you privately, Stephen. Away from Serge, Timothy, Yumna.. and especially, Haneru. Sapporo seemed far enough for me.'

'You pulled me here to _talk_?' I repeated her words.

'That is correct. There is a lot we need to discuss, Stephen.'

She didn't seem to move, but suddenly she was behind me, whispering in my ear. 'About the differences between the two of us, it is.'

'Yeah, you're a vampire, I'm human, she's dangerous for me, I shouldn't be hanging out with her.' I blabbered. 'Blah, blah blah. Stuff I already know, and I'm not gonna change.'

'You have not got the slightest idea of what you are talking about, Stephen.' she said. She seemed never to lose her calm. 'My heart hasn't beat for two thousand years. Believe me, I have knowledge you do not have.'

'You sure do, 'cuz you lived 2000 and I lived seventeen years.' I said cynically. 'Big deal?'

'Yes. In those two thousand years I met a lot of other vampires. I experienced a lot. And so often, I ran into a vampire who had fallen in love with a human. Who had wanted to be friends with a human. Who had wanted any more intercourse from a human than they were able to.'

'So?'

'There is an ultimatum, Stephen. There are two options for the human who wants to be with the vampire, as a comrade, or as it's lover. Shall I tell you these options?'

'I'm waiting.'

Her eyes shifted around the room, as if she was expecting someone to come in. 'Death is the first option.'

'Oh come on, Melita.' I sighed. 'She won't kill me.'

'Not right now.' Melita said. 'But who can promise you she will never slip? And if she manages to never slip, who promises you her friends, or even more likely, her enemies, will never slip?'

'Can't she just protect me? It's kinda romantic to be protected by your partner, you know.' I ranted.

'Haha.' she laughed bitterly. 'I have seen this too many times. Do you want to be protected forever? Do you want to feel like you – _owe_ - her for the rest of your life?

'No, believe me. You will not be able to stand that. You will be ripped by your feelings. You will feel you are not worth all this effort, and you will be depressed. You will commit suicide. And the vampire will die with you. I swear you.'

'How would you know who I am? You don't know me at all!' I shouted. I felt myself boiling inside. I felt desire to kick this woman in her face, even if it was no use.

So I stepped forward and tried to hit her, impulsively, but I hit nothing but air. She was at the other side of the room, and she had moved to fast for me to notice. 'Oh come on, Stephen.' she sighed theatratically.

'Do you still want to hear your second option?'

'Don't keep me in tension.' I grumbled.

'All right. So the humans' second option is to become a vampire, too.'

'What?' I felt goosebumps on my skin as I shivered. 'What are you talking about?'

'I am talking about changing you, Stephen. About turning you into a vampire. And that is my ultimatum.'

'Your ultimatum? What the hell are you talking about?' I made a run for the door, but she was already there. She gripped my face between her ice cold hands.

'I am saying I have two options for you here, Stephen. Either you die, or either I will change you right now.'

'You can't do that!' I mumbled, because she was pressing my cheeks.

'Oh yes I can. And unfortunately, there is nothing you can do about it.'

'But WHY?' I screamed. 'Why do you do this to me? What have I done wrong?'

'Nothing, really. But Haneru is desperately in love with you. And in order to keep her healthy, I am giving you this ultimatum. I am not the only one who is forcing you in this decision. There are the Volturi, too.'

'The Volturi?'

'They are a group of very old, wise vampires. They are only a few hundred years older than me, though still, they are the closest thing we vampires have to royalty. They control our world. And if they find out you, a human, know about us, they will want to kill you. And there will be no way to stop them.'

She stepped onto me. 'So what is your decision? You die, or you become one of us?'

'I.. I..'

Suddenly the door was kicked open with what seemed to be a powerful roundhouse kick.

It took me moments to recognize the big, handsome African-American boy in the gape where the door had been. He looked just like a passionate R&B singer whose name I had forgotten, but who had slammed his girlfriend's face just like this guy had done with the door.

'Timothy Jones?' Melita asked curiously, as if she was nothing more than slightly surprised.

I was shocked. 'Timothy?'

'You ain't changin' the kid, Mel.' he said in his Louisiana negro accent. 'And ya'r definetely not gonna kill him. Not while I'm around.'

'You should properly tell me why, Timothy.' Melita grinned.

'He ain't yer toy, and don't tell him lies about those fucking Volturi. You crazy, you know? Yer the most horrible _bloodsucker_ I ever met.'

'That suprises me, Timothy. What makes you care about this boy so much? You have not much to do with Haneru, now do you?' she answered politely.

'Ya know Yumna's her BFF, and ya know Yumna's in my pack. Ya know I'm as concerned as she is about Haneru, and that way, concerned over Stephen too. If Haneru's not righ', Yumna's not righ', and our pack isn't right. Ya know how many peep you affectin' with yer selfishness?'

'Selfishness? Now this is becoming interesting.'

'You oughta think? I know ya just wanna change the kid for the thrill. Ya bored, are ya?'

'Watch your words closely, dog.'

'You be a selfish bloodsucker, chick.'

'I care for Haneru, as much as you do for this.. _Tiniecia_ girl.' She spoke grudgingly.

'Nissy's got nothing to do with this, bloodsucker. You ain't gonna do nothing with this kid.'

'Do you wish to fight, Timothy?'

And suddenly, Timothy seemed to _explode_. He jumped in the air, his hair rapidly grew around him and suddenly, a gigantic wolve was standing before me, grumbling and forcing Melita away.

'Oh my, oh my.' Melita said calmly, but the wolve attacked her. She jumped aside, and soon the two disappeared in movements which were too fast for me to follow.

I stepped trough the door gate and ran across the hallway to the cafetaria.

Was Timothy a werewolve?

And what he said about his pack – his pack! Then Yumna and Calvin were werewolves too -

how many mythological creatures actually _did_ exist in this world?

I had no idea what to do.

'Shoko! We have to leave.' I screamed when entering the cafetaria but she wasn't there.

Was this Melita's doing? I panicked even more.

'There ain't nothing to worry about, dude.' someone said, and when I turned around, I saw a tall, broad and beautiful African American woman with long, black hair. 'Nice to meet ya. I'm Tiniecia Shawn, and you betta stay here with me, y' know what I'm sayin'.'

I nodded, still panicking. 'Are they gonna kill eachother?'

'I wouldn't mind if Tim took out the bloodsucka, ya know wha I'm sayin..' she said with rhythm in her voice and pulled a lunchbox out of her bag. 'Meanwhile, ya wanna eat somethin'?'

'Err.. sure.' I said. What the hell was going on? 'But are you not concerned about your.. boyfriend?'

'Fiancée, baby. No, I'm not. I can follow his every thought in my mind, 'cuz I'm part of his _pack_, ya know whatta'm sayin'.. So I'd know if I'd have to be concerned, ya know. Whatever, you like chicken?'

I had to keep my nervous giggles from myself when she pronounced chicken as "chickiihn". 'Sure.'

'Oh, and your host mommy's of to the toile'h, kay?'

I felt a huge shot of relief.

Tiniecia and I sat at one table in the deserted cafetaria, eating extremely delicious chicken legs. I was wondering if this was all to distract me of what was happening above. But since Tiniecia still wasn't alarmed, and she claimed to be interfered with Timothy's thougths, I guessed everything was going fine.

'The chicken's delicious. How are things up there with Melita?' I asked.

'Thank you, boy. I didda lotta work on it, ya know. Just killed it this mornin'. Man, there ain't no good way to get good chickihn in a place like Japan, ya know whaddim sayin'.'

Again, to my humor, she pronounced Japan as Japaahn, with an extremely American 'a', making it sound like an 'ehhhhhhh' as in 'edge'.

'But are Timothy and Melita allright?'

'It's whateva ya wanna call allright, dude. He's havin' a hard time. She's a fast chick, ya know, plus she don't wanna give up and she's stron'. I think somebody oughtta stop 'em.'

I grabbed my mobile phone out of my bag and ticked Haneru's number as fast as I could.

She took on her phone at the first call. 'Hi, Haneru, are you there?' I shouted.

'What is it, Stephen?'

'Timothy and Melita are fighting over here. I'm afraid something might happen to Timothy. You ought to come RIGHT now. We're in Sapporo's Centre for Immigration.'

'I know. I was the one who sent Timothy to fight off Melita.'

'You did whát?'

'I was the one who did it. I was so unbelievably angry at Mel when she took over the position as your examinator. And you know-'

Haneru couldn't finish her sentence because someone grabbed the telephone out of my hand. A pale, perfect hand – Melita's.

'We will discuss this later, Haneru.' Melita said in my cell phone, and then loosely threw it on the ground.

'Where's Timothy?' I screamed, and got up. Tiniecia was still next to me, but she didn't seem worried.

'Timothy's fine. He beat the f'ckin crap outta the bloodsucka, ya know what I'm sayin?' Tiniecia said.

'Timothy is stronger than I had expected him to be, and he quite, well, - _beat the crap_ – out of me.' Melita admitted, her emotion unchanged, though I could feel her repressed anger.

Timothy appeared next to her and kissed Tiniecia on her cheek, not removing his eyes from Melita.

'So Stephen. We will work out things later on. I consider your test as passed with an A+, and so I consider your apply for Japanese citizenship as accepted. Congratulations.'

She spoke in a cool and dangerous voice, as if she was celebrating someone's death.

'We will meet again.'

And she disappeared.

Then, from the corner of my eye, I saw Shoko enter the cafetaria. 'Stephen!' she yelled.

I turned to Timothy. 'So what was this all about? Quickly, tell me.'

'She wanted this ultimatum thing, 'cuz she thinks you'll make Haneru unhappy, 'cuz she's got so much experience and she sez she knows what will happen. But fuck that shiz. Haneru's a decent bloodsucker, really, she a fine chick, I know you ain't gonna upset her. You be a good boy, Stephen.'

'And you were safe for this time.' he added, whispering. 'But ya better be on yer watch now. She don't accept this like this. She'll try anything, really. On your watch, boy, on your watch.'

Tiniecia kissed Timothy on his cheek. 'We should be leaving now, hon. Steve – take care. Don't let this bloodsucka break ya and yer love, ya know? Love conquers all, ya know whaddim sayin'.'

I smiled at her seemingly signature sentence ending and wanted to say something, but they were already gone. The next minute I fell over when Shoko jumped over me in excitement and tension whether or not I had passed. The one good thing this evening had brought; I was a Japanese now.


	5. There's Something In The Air

We arrived at school pretty early that morning, though still, everybody was staring at us.

I could almost _hear _Hikaru's wild, twisted thoughts when his eyes rested upon our holding hands.

Haneru grasped my hand more tightly when she noticed. 'Soooo jealous.' she puffed in my ear.

Then, in the middle of the school hall, I saw someone was waiting for us. Unnaturally pale and consummate, with her large, shiny yellow eyes intent on Haneru's face, she stood perfectly still.

Until she started moving towards us, setting up a pace that my slow human eyes couldn't keep up with.

'What are you doing! Stop it!' Haneru hissed in a clear voice, which I knew Malia would hear, as far away as she was. She halted gracefully and strode off in our direction with reduced speed, though I was certain she still outran a professional runner.

'Haneru.' There was a strange mingling of shock and concern in her voice.

'Don't tell me.' Haneru bawled, still in the exuberantly cheesy mood I left her in this morning. 'I see you just.. ate. Who was it this time? Niffy or Sniffy? Or Blubby?'

'I don't think that's the good type of assumption.' I blubbered on a low tone.

Malia glared at me, then shifted her eyes to Haneru and back. '_Posso parlare Italiano?_'

Haneru rolled her eyes. 'You know, you really should be able to talk English after 259 damn years.'

Malia ignored her, and started to rattle in a chaotic, though melodic and classic tongue which I assumed to be Italian.

First, Haneru eyed her dubiously.

Then, her expression hardened.

Thirdly, an enigmatic range of fearful emotions flitted across her face.

She let out a little 'No!', and I could hear her voice break.

The blood drained from my face. 'What's wrong?'

She pursed her lips before speaking, and hesitated two more times, taking little breaths, then breaking off before producing sound. 'Others. There are others.'

'That's bad?' I asked, and I heard a faint trace of panick in my voice; her mood was affecting me.

'Others like Taiyo. Human-drinking others.'

I shuddered and felt my heart thump a little faster. 'But you're here. The werewolves are here. What can happen?'

There was a little pause before she answered: 'I am their target.'

'You're their target.' I echoed her in surprise.

She moved to the side and sat down on a chair standing to the wall, a very human movement.

I'd never seen her so shaken before. Then again, it wasn't like I'd known her long.

Like I was used to when a girl was needing comfort, I put my arm around her shoulder.

'Baby,' I told her, while trying to ignore the cold and hard touch of her skin, 'the werewolves are on our side. And the werewolves are powerful. Please don't worry.'

Haneru was talking to herself, low and quick, hard for me to hear. 'Shimon, Tahari, Alek, Sydney, Elizabeth.. all of them coming. And he's telling me _not to worry_.'

'Why're you so certain they're coming for you, sis?'

I didn't realize Serge had come to stand before us.

Nobody was paying attention to me, including Haneru. 'Tahari's a tracker. Why else would they hit Japan.'

She lingered her shocked expression, while another pair of yellow eyes locked on her face.

'I assume we should conclude the situation to be threatening indeed, Serge.' Melita said. 'There have already been thirteen unnecessary casualties in the town of Tomakomai, and they are heading north.'

I got to my feet. 'Could anybody tell me what the hell's going on?' I insisted with repressed stress.

'Later. We need to get away. Now.' Haneru's voice was low and bleak.

She got up, gripped my elbow and pulled me along. Serge, Melita and Malia were close behind me. I felt how tangible Haneru's impatience was as we moved out of the school at human speed, while I still had no trace of the reasoning of her sudden concern.

* * *

The way outside was blocked by a narrow-eyed man who shot us a dark look.

'Where do you think you're going?'

'Hayasaki-san.' Melita said casually, and performed a small bow. 'I do am sorry, we have to leave.'

My math teacher measured Melita's open expressions for a moment before speaking. 'Of course. Feel free.'

His words made my jaw drop while we passed, before I realized how handy Melita's gift was at times like this.

* * *

Once we had reached the wood starting out just a few metres away from school, Haneru slung me over her back without breaking stride. 'I'm taking him home.' she said, while I tried to tell her I was not comfortable with this. 'You take the cars.' she told the others.

'But..' Melita protested.

'I'm not leaving his side, Mel. You remember what happened to Mike?'

With saying that, she took off, and raced trough the now black wood with impossible speed. I was going to laugh at the fact she was smaller then me and yet _carrying _me, but there was no time for that.

I closed my eyes and kept my head down when the ground started to disappear under her feet.

'Why-are-we-heading-to-your-house?' I asked her.

'The fastest car is there. The fastest car to take you away from here, to the airport.' she grumbled.

'Take _me _away? Where to?'

'Tokyo.' she answered.

'Why are you freakin' taking _me _away when they target _you_? And who's Mike?'

'I told you, they're no vegetarians.' she answered dryly. 'We'll all have to split up and flee.'

'Shouldn't we rather stay together, facing the enemy?'

'We're outnumbered. So no, we use our only advantage, speed.'

She seemed to be ripped by fury, driving her only faster and faster.

* * *

We ended in a small meadow, thirteen kilometres from Mashike's city centre, on the hill of one of the big mountains outside the city.

There was a graceful, traditional Japanese house standing there, shaped like a temple, with signature red roof tiles on it. But Haneru wouldn't give me time to gasp at in amazement, as she pulled me right into a big, red Ferrari car.

'Do stop now, Haneru.' I heard Melita's voice, as I felt her cold touch against my hand and she pulled me back. 'There is no need to rash into irrational decisions.'

She sniffed. 'Besides, Stephen, you do smell nice. I had never noticed that before.'

That was extremely embarrassing.

Haneru shot Melita a dark look. 'What do you want me to do, then? Wait?' And she started firing a string of Italian words and sentences at Melita, a string too chaotic and rashy for me to even hear.

Melita then reacted, and fired back, talking just as fast as Haneru did, in the same language. It was like two cats arguing at night.

'Could anybody please explain the whole damn situation to me?' I asked, and they fell silent.

'There's no time.' Haneru exclaimed.

'But there is simply no point in leaving now, Haneru, only one is coming and he will be here in another ten minutes, calculating his speed.'

I saw Serge and Malia appear behind Melita's tiny frame, too.

'So tell me the story.' I groaned angrily. 'And do so before pulling me in and out cars and such.'

Haneru broke off in nervous giggling.

'So will you tell me?' I insisted again.

'Certainly.' Melita grimaced. 'Do you..'

'I'll take care of that, Melita.' Serge cut her off. 'To be honest, he likes me better then you.'

Melita's over-confident expression showed no sign of surprise.

* * *

'You know Steve, Haneru's probably told you, there was a vampire war during her newborn year.'

I nodded, remembering what she told me.

'The First World War was taking place, so they were like, whatever, why don't we start a war of our own. It was all kind off pointless, kinda like, many southern vampires coming to conquer the north and wipe the northern vamps out. The Volturi did nothing, as they were far too thrilled by the sudden decrease of vampire covens they kept under watch.

'You may know, a newborn vampire is unreliable and uncontrollable with bloodthirst, but very strong and thus a very offensive weapon. So many of the southerns used a horrible technique to win battles; they created armies of newborn vampires to fight for them, which they disposed of right after their use. Naturally, the northern vampires reacted with newborn vampires of their own, and the human population got seriously affected. In midst of this all, Haneru was having her newborn year and..'

'But what does this have to do with the vampires coming here now?' I broke him off.

'You'll know if you just _listen_.' he cautioned me, clearly offended to be cut off.

'Well, on top of the Haneru thing, Malia has a very impulsive and aggressive acharacter, it's not hard to make her angry. So when she watched a coven murder some humans just for the thrill of it, she went out of control, and attacked them.' he continued, leaving me in confusion with a vampire holding that much compassion for humans.

'Haneru and Malia enrolled into battle with the coven, existing of Sydney, Elizabeth and John, three vamps hailing from Zimbabwe, southern Africa. Haneru then ripped John apart and managed to destroy him – something that set John's mate, Elizabeth, on serious fire.

'Then, later, when Lia and Hane got to Greece, they met Mel and me. They tried to fight us, but lost, then joined us. It was actually a strategic move of Melita's to offer this, as she was fighting an Israelian coven over a piece of land in Greece that time.'

Again, Serge was interrupted, this time by Melita.

'I stopped them, for they had chosen Phocis as location to create their perfect newborn army, so that they could invade Athens.' she shrugged. 'I could not possibly allow such things to be performed in my beloved native country.'

'Yeah, yeah.' Serge murmured. 'Well anyway, this coven we were fighting existed of Tahari, Alek, Timo and Shimon. Haneru had already passed her newborn year then, and was very capable of helping us out. Especially thanks to Malia, who has tons of vampire fighting experience due to her nature, as you already know, they would've been absolutely no match for us, wouldn't it have been Timo was a very compassionate fighter who wouldn't dare to even _consider_ giving up. We figured that if we could take him down, their motivation would be gone, and so Haneru was the one managing to destroy him. But you can't possibly imagine what effect that had.'

'His mate Tahari was incredibly angry and from then, desired nothing more then a bloody revenge on Haneru. Her coven retreated, though, because they did not have the numbers nor the ability to take ours down. We feared they would create a newborn army, but they refrained from that, probably thinking we would react doing the same. An act, we would of course never commit.

'In 1981, while we were living in Australia, Haneru got in a relationship with a very handsome and friendly vampire, Mike. But of course, as soon as this news reached Tahari, she eyed Mike as her newest target. Then somehow, in a disastrous coincidence, her coven met Elizabeth's, and they merged to fulfill their collective goal: killing Haneru and Mike.

'We didn't see them coming, and we couldn't stop them. All at the same time, they had attacked us, and we could only save Haneru in the end.' Serge sighed. 'We fled, but the coven was always able to track us down, thanks to that damn Tahari. It stopped in 1998, when Haneru befriended Yumna in Las Vegas, and we landed ourselves a bunch of werewolves to protect us.'

'And now they're back.' I said.

'I guess so.' Serge quickly, then got the critical look in my eyes. 'Oops.'

'So their target isn't _Haneru_.' I concluded. 'It's me.'

'It is you both they are hunting.' Melita corrected me, and glared at me with a pityful look in her eyes.

Then, all four vampires turned to the right, facing the trees. All at the same time, all with even speed.

Precisely the moment I was wondering what was going on now, a figure stepped out of the trees to the north, some thirty paces away.

* * *

My eyes focused on the motionless figure, and I saw the utter stillness, the pallid skin. I studied the gorgeous female body, dressed in tight jeans and a mini-dress, which somehow alarmed my brain a hot chick was coming. I let my eyes continue, until ending at the face beneath the waving blonde hair. The burgundy red eyes pulled me back to reality.

The blonde woman, smiling eagerly, stepped toward Melita.

'It pleases me to remeet you and your family, Melita. Though I see, you still don't allow yourself real food?' she said in a relaxed voice with a faint British accent. While moving her lips, the three other vampires had gathered together, blocking me from view as they converged. Haneru was at my side instantly, while Serge fell back slower, not removing his eyes from the blonde vampirelle.

'Welcome to our residence, Elizabeth.' Melita spoke, in an ice-cold, menacing tone. She was not even _trying_ to hide her urge to rip Elizabeth's head off.

Haneru stiffened her shoulders.

'I'm afraid your hunting activity is causing us problems.' Serge told her.

'It does?' Elizabeth reacted with played surprise. 'Well, I may take the liberty to say that if I hadn't had satisfied myself, this little encounter may have ended differently.'

Goosebumps ran down my arms when I realized she was mentioning the walking food; me.

'Can I conclude that you are not here with the intention to fight?' Melita inquired.

She rocked back on her heels slightly. 'You could. I've come here today to make you an announcement.'

'Feel free to spit it out.' Haneru said in a cool voice.

Elizabeth seemed impressed by Haneru's ability to speak to her, as she looked at Melita in disbelief and aggravation. 'Sure, my dear Haneru.'

To all of our surprise and concern, she turned to me.

'Stephen, I may assume you know a woman named Claudia Cavallari?' she asked.

Upon hearing my ex-girlfriend's name, it was as if a knife struck me, and I felt Haneru sharing this emotion as she held my hand.

'I do.' I answered in a dry, croaking voice.

'Then it may interest you we have her cornered, back in Germany. Would you wish to save her?'

Another hole. Shot right trough my chest.

'Could you answer me?' she insisted coolly.

'I don't know what this is all about.' I spit to her, not looking into her eyes. 'But I have nothing to do with this, nor has Claudia. You have already killed this Mike. Why the hell aren't you satisfied? I know you'll have some kind of trap set up there in Germany.'

She grinned. 'I assure you, none of us will hurt you or Haneru. But if you are so strongly against travelling to Germany, I'll move our visiting location to Otaru.'

'What?' I murmured. How did she now I was against going to Germany?

'Her fellow coven member Sydney can forecast someone's every movement.' Haneru hissed in my ear.

'Otaru, then?' Elizabeth asked, with yet another misplaced grin.

'How would we know what to expect?' Melita asked her politely. 'If you are leading us into a trap, we might as well call for our reinforcements. The dogs.'

'Bluffing, bluffing, bluffing.' Elizabeth smiled. 'Those wolves aren't worth a dang, really. Haha. But you'll know where to find us.'

She prepared to leave, but Haneru shot forward and grabbed her arm. 'We are not yet finished.'

'Are we?'

'I swear to the name of Mike that I _will _kill you. And I will take my revenge for Taiyo, too.'

Elizabeth laughed a loud, bursting laugh and disappeared in the woods.

'Your revenge for Taiyo?' I asked, and understood it had never been Haneru to slip.

* * *

'So.. they've been to Japan before?' I asked Haneru, who looked bewildered.

'Yes. Alek was the one who attacked Taiyo – I managed to stop him, but failed to rescue Taiyo.' she admitted.

'And Alek is by far the most dangerous, most powerful of them.' Melita commented. 'He has had several offers to join the Volturi. Wisefully, he refused, in complete contradiction of my former self.'

'Are we asking the werewolves' help or not?' Serge cautioned her.

'Well, let's see.' Haneru said, laying her head against my chest. 'Elizabeth has the ability to make you trip, so she will have a definite advantage over the four-legged werewolves.'

'But we're going to need help.' Serge said. 'Do you think Timothy would be willing to lend us the pack's help?'

'We'll ask.' Haneru said, and held out her pink Hello Kitty-cell phone.

Serge took the phone, and paced towards the house. He dialed a number, held it to his ear and laid the other hand against the front door. He stared out in the foggy sky with an ambivalent expression.

I could make him out greeting someone, then racing trough everything so fast I couldn't hear anything.

Then a little surprise was hearable in his voice. 'Oh.' he said with sudden delight. 'That's wonderful. Yeah, congratulations. Very kind of you to invite us to the ceremonies, we realize you have other priorities.'

Malia groaned at my side and closed her eyes, while Melita hit herself for the head. 'Those _dogs _cannot manage to stay away from eachother, can they?'

Obviously, they had already heard the news I was still waiting for.

'Yumna is so gonna get killed for this.' Haneru grunted. 'How dare she.'

'What?' I asked, then noticed her faint smile. She _smiled?_

'Well.. I don't exactly know how to bring this.' She paused, looking up to me.

'Don't leave me in tension.' I said as evenly as I could. This was either something absolutely horrible or terribly funny.

Her eyes narrowed. 'Yumna, Tiniecia and Christina all got themselves knocked up.'

'No!' I gasped. 'They're only eighteen! Besides, who's Christina?'

'Christina is the other female in their pack. And don't you worry, a werewolve doesn't age from the moment they first phase. They're all over twenty-six, actually.'

'Right.' I puffed. 'Right. Is there any reason they got all.. pregnant at the same time?'

'It's this years' annual mating season, and they considered themselves old enough. Like I said, I am _so _gonna kill Yumna.'

I sighed. 'So they are out of the question.'

The vampires got back in their original, stiffened positions. 'Yes. The females don't phase anymore and the males stay to protect them. Since the pack members share their thoughts, the three remaining men stay with them as well.' Serge explained.

'Who do they think they ARE?' Haneru exclaimed. 'Getting out of fight position _right _this.. fuck.'

'What is it?' I asked, only to be answered by Melita.

'She just realized Tahari has waited until now on purpose. Has waited until the shape-shifters were neutralized, that is.' she said, sounding almost sincere.

'Then what do we do?' I inquired, looking around me and glaring at my family-in-law's faces. Serge, Melita, Malia – it was clear none of them concerned me even half as bad as they concerned Haneru.

What stood in way for them to just let Claudia die?

* * *

Haneru then made a sudden, unexpected movement; she grabbed a piece of paper and a pencil out of her jeans pocket, and started to scribble.

I stared at her, my eyes so wide with curiousity it felt like they might fall out.

'No!' she exclaimed. 'No, we're definetely gonna save her, Stephen!'

'What're you talking about?'

She sighed, and tried to calm herself down. 'I was finally able to draw your mind, now an emotion this strong pierced it.'

I gasped in disbelief. My concern for Claudia had been so strong it activated Haneru's gift on me?

She showed me the picture, which was, to my amazement, a perfect copy of Claudia's terrified face, with many scribbles next to it. 'This is as far as my gift reaches.' she explained. 'I will never be able to get your full emotion, just images and thoughts.'

She looked back at one of her scribbles, then narrowed her eyes. 'You also seem to think Elizabeth's butt... looked _good_ in those pants.'

'You're totally breaking my privacy!' I shouted at her.

'No I'm not.' she said. 'And if I am, then try and sue me. That'll be funny.'

Melita, silent trough our little argument, flashed her a warning look, but she stuck out her tongue at her.

'By the way, are Melita and you the only ones with a gift?' I asked, in an attempt to change the subject.

'A gift doesn't always come as a power like shooting lasers from your eyes.' Serge answered. 'My gift, for example, is a pretty useless one in battle, which I didn't even use in my human life; to be able to look a way that I attract sexual attention.'

That explained the litteral fainting of most human girls whenever they saw Serge.

'And Malia's gift is to never be satisfied. She could drink like, a container full of blood, and still ask for more. Something definetely from her human life.' he then smirked. 'She weighed 264 lbs. Unhealthy.'

'What. Will. We. Do.' Melita hissed, breaking our chatter. Her brusque tone was not generous.

And I suddenly felt the need to run away, away, far away from here.

'Could you stop that.' I asked her.

* * *

When I arrived home, I was exhausted. The vampires had spent the whole rest of the day working out plans, training fighting techniques and discussing facts about the enemy, while I had tried to make sure they 'd incalculate leaving Claudia _alive_ in their plan. I was not sure I had succeeded.

The front door of our house was open, and I walked in.

My host father Sakumo was already waiting for me. 'Where have you been? It's seven PM.'

'Sakumo.' I muttered. 'I'm so sorry. Haneru's aunt died and I supported her mentally.'

I was surprised by the smoothness of my lies. 'You did?' Sakumo bellowed at me. 'Because I heard you skipped school. Do you have any idea of what that could do to our reputation? People will think we are bad parents who don't take care of you. They will think Erika will skip school, too!'

'It was not skipping.' I insisted. 'It was allowed. With all to your respect, you should call mr. Hayasaki. He can inform you.'

'Don't tell me what to do!' he yelled. 'You have done enough!'

At times like this, I wished I could flush Japanese etiquette down the toilet.

'Okay, then call Melita.' I told him. 'Since you seem to be so fond of her.'

'And don't you dare talk to me like that!' he cautioned, his skin becoming red.

'But you should be mad at her! She made me skip school!' I tried. If I had to blame anyone for anything, I could only think of that midget bitch.

My words left an awkward silence, stilted because of my embarrasment and of Sakumo's surprise to my brutality, but they seemed sincere.

Erika then stumbled outside, grasping at any chance to confront her father. 'It's true, dad! I saw him with Brainless Brunette and Sir McSexy -'

'You schoolgirls seriously have such names for them?' I interrupted her.

Sakumo turned to her and raised his eyebrows.

'We'll discuss this later.' he decided. 'Since we have no concern about your school results, Stephen, I might consider to let my anger faint. Enjoy your dinner.'

I took a deep breath and passed him, entering the kitchen.

'Stephen? Are you there?' Shoko's voice was anxious.

She sat at the dinner table, where I only saw one plate, with an enormous bunch of food on it. Seems Sakumo was planning to let me pass trough anyway.

'What have you been up to?' she asked casually.

I stretched over the table as she spoke, in order to get my chopsticks. 'Casualty in Haneru's family. We were out the whole day, I'm so sorry.'

Too bad for me, but Shoko was one of these very sensitive persons, just like her daughter.

Erika silently went to stand after Shoko, the latter one not even noticing.

'That was the best story for Sakumo. But you might as well tell me the truth.' she offered, trying to comfort me.

I groaned. 'Fabulous.'

What was I supposed to tell her now? It wasn't like I was a top-class liar.

'Okay, so actually, a friend of hers got knocked up. And we went in enormous rage about it. We were like, what? She's so young! You know.' At least, half of the truth.

I saw Erika's disbelief was quickly melting into distrust. 'Suuuure.'

'It's true.' I tried. And that was no lie.

'If Stephen says that's the truth, it's the truth, Erika.' Shoko frowned, but her genuine curiousity had merged into total confidence about the situation. Then I guessed what she was thinking.

'Oh NO.' I laughed. 'It's Absolutely. Nothing. Like. That.'

'I've seen it happen before, Stephen.' Shoko assured me. 'If you ask her hand in marriage, there is nothing to be ashamed of. It's honorable.'

'Cut it out NOW, Shoko.' I threatened her, and rounded the corner to the room where the stairs were.

But the stairs were blocked by Sakumo.

'Don't be bothered by my wife's stupid assumptions.' he mumbled, to make sure she didn't hear him.

Though I was pretty damn sure he was totally trying to get me to confirm her story.

'I know. This is ridiculous.' I spit and ran the stairs.

* * *

Time began to rip along much more quickly than I was used to. Haneru, school, the awkward situations at home – though not necessarily in that order – created a neat and effortless path to follow. Only, it was too neat for me, too neat for me to think of when we would finally take action on Claudia.

Haneru had told me Sydney had incalculated when we would take action, and they wouldn't hurt her, but that didn't satisfy me. I was incredibly angry with the other vampires' lack of compassion.

Every time I sat with my friends, and occasionally, Haneru, I would see Serge and Malia's pityful looks rest on me. But if giving me such looks was the only thing they were capable of, they surely weren't much of a vampire to begin with.

So I decided to confront Haneru with my own plans and questions.

'I need to talk to you.' I told her, when I met here in the school corridor prior to my class Japanese History.

Her face fell, and I saw her hand moving rapidly inside her bag. Drawing my mind again.

'Uh-oh.' she cried. 'Negative aura.'

She was about to pull her notebook out of her bag, but I stopped her – or at least I tried.

After giving the notebook one quick glancing, I caught the expression in her, this time, black eyes before she got up and eyed me cautiously.

'Don't act so fucking casual.' I told her. 'I mean, I love you and all, but drop the act. My ex-girlfriend, the mother of my baby, was kidnapped by some thirsty, revenge-seeking, crazed vampires and _you _are acting like nothing's going on. Making jokes, making small-talk. And your family doesn't even _care_.'

I couldn't stand hurting her, but I wanted to slap her at the same time.

'You – you just told me you loved me.' She swallowed hard.

'Don't you change the subject.' I reminded her.

'I'm such a dim-wit.' she said, and slapped herself. 'I mean, I should be true to you, but I'm not. All because I don't want to hurt you.'

That alarmed me, and I started to feel stressed. Those words had some deeper meaning.

'What exactly are you not telling me, because it will hurt me?' I hedged.

'Oh, well, nothing extraordinary, really. Just forget it. I need to get to my class.' she rushed, and walked away.

'No!' I said, and pulled her back. 'I'm sick of not being told anything. Don't treat me like an imbecile, just because I'm _human_!'

She bit her lip. 'Okay. I'll tell you. We're planning.. to let it go. We figured they won't come after us if we show no clear interest in their threats. That way, they'd have to confront us in order to attempt on your life, and in that way, we got the advantage. We won't leave human terrain, which isn't very difficult in a crowded country like Japan, nor leave you unwatched.'

It took me a long time to come up with the correct response.

Leaving it? Leaving her with those vampires? With the likes of _Elizabeth_?

'Don't tell me you're listening to Melita's superstitious nonsense now.' I said with a feeble attempt at mockery. 'Because I _know _she doesn't care the least bit.'

'That's all?' she responded. 'You're not gonna freak out and slap me?'

'Do you _want _me to freak out and slap you? I'm trying to stay calm and act adult-like. And shouldn't I expect the same from a 112-year old?'

'I don't believe that's an age I can claim. I may have experience, I'm still my same, girly, weird, creative 18-year old self.' she opposed me. 'Not that that's what this is all about.'

'Or is it because she is my ex-girlfriend that you don't wanna save her?' I asked her with fury glowing in my eyes. 'Are you jealous, because she got my baby? Because _I _told you everything about myself, but _you _don't tell me anything. Anything at all. Just the fun stuff, nothing _real. _Not the truth about Taiyo, not a word about Mike. Not even telling me _you_ shot _yourself_, back in 1915!'

I panted, and looked at her widened eyes. 'How did you know about that?' she gasped, and flinched.

I was surprised and distracted by this reaction. 'That's true too?'

I strode away with repressed anger and a dangerous expression on my face. 'No, wait!' she screamed.

'Let me tell you something.' I said. 'I'll go and get Claudia back myself, and I can't imagine you could give a fuck, because you just told me, straight in my face, you're gonna let them kill her.'

'It's not like that! You kept asking me, what - '

'Shut _up_! You agreed to that! And I don't understand that! Why are you so full of yourself, and yourself only? Do you expect me to just accept this, shrug my shoulders and move on like _nothing_'s happened?'

I didn't look back while I got to my class.

'You're being ridiculous!' she yelled after me. 'You know nothing! Nothing at all! You've always had this easy-breezy human life of yours! And you can tell me you've had problems, but none of these are comparable to mine! Did _you_ have an abusive father? Did _you_ have a crazed vampire sister attacking every stranger doing something she doesn't like? Did _you_ have to fight everyday? Did _you_ see vampires taking.. your partner.. away.. from you.' she finished.

'Are you assuming that only because you had a hard time, I should feel pain too? Thinking that's gonna mature me?' I shot back. 'Because I'm more mature then you are. Far more mature.'

'And no.' I continued. 'I did not have vampires taking away my partner from me. I just have an ex-girlfriend, someone whose name I adopted, someone who gave birth to a baby I have procreated, someone I simply care about. And this girl is kidnapped by five vampires lusting for her blood, and _you _follow in the decisions of that midget bitch Melita, not because she forces you too, but because you just think I'll get over it and we'll all be fine!'

'I agreed because I was scared.' Haneru stared at the ground's perfectly cleaned tiles.

'_Scared_?' I echoed in disbelief.

She spun around to face me. 'They killed my everything. Mike was my everything. Then in 2002, I was so happy I got Taiyo. He was so much like you, though less cute and all – whatever. He was also very special to me. They destroyed his life, they turned him in one of my most mortal enemies. What do you think that feels like? The first time, they just destroyed my boyfriend, the second time, they made him my enemy. The second time was worse. I don't want any of that to happen to you, Stephen.'

'Then accompany me when I go to Otaru.' I urged her. 'Because there is no way to stop me from going there. I can't understand, you promised me we would save her. You promised me! My emotions for her were so strong it even activated your gift on me!

'Draw me.' I dared her. 'Draw my mind now, and look at it. See what your words have caused.'

She sucked in a startled breath and leaned forward to me. Her face was shifting from anger to pity to hopelessness in a second. 'I can't let you go. Ever.'

I tried to clear my head. Nothing she said made sense.

I ignored her last statement. 'Will you come with me?' I urged her once again.

'Yes.' she promised. 'But we can't let Mel know.'

My voice was soundless. 'Then we don't.'

'Good.' She inhaled deeply. 'Then I think we should ask Yumna for advice. I'm visiting her and Tiniecia after school anyway, so you're coming along and we plan our little suicide trip.'

I nodded in approval and I felt my heart become a little lighter.

* * *

I could not simply believe the size of Yumna's belly.

It was _enormous. _Three times the size of what Claudia's had been.

'Are you sure this is normal?' I asked her, while Calvin eyed me with anger.

'Normal for me.' she laughed. 'You know, a human takes approximately nine months to grow a baby. A wolf takes two. Plus, wolves rarely get one baby at a time.'

Haneru gasped and got up from patting Yumna's belly. 'Don't tell me. How many?'

'It's average.' Yumna puffed. 'Six.'

'Six.' I repeated. 'Is that average?'

'For a werewolve, yes.' Yumna answered and laughed again. 'Tiniecia's got eight.'

I glared at Tiniecia's direction. The size of _her_ belly was indeed, beyond enormous.

Haneru and I shot eachother a quick look, which sent us both laughing. 'I can't believe this, Yumna.' Haneru told her. She had said that a hundred times now.

I turned back to Yumna. 'But you're not a child out of six yourself, right?' I inquired.

'Nope.' she answered. 'But my parents weren't both werewolves. I hadn't expected this, either, but we breed _exactly _like regular wolves. The only human thing is our mating season, while humans don't even have a mating season anymore.'

Haneru laughed loudly now. 'You're saying you guys only feel.. _the need _once a year?'

'Just one amazingly satisfying month.' Yumna sighed, and squeezed Calvin's hand. 'Hahhh.'

I got up and gestured toward Tiniecia, while looking around me. The wolves' house was so small and yet held so many people. It only had four rooms, and one floor. I guessed that was because the wolves were outside most of the time anyway.

The house was made out of wood and teak, inside the woods, only a faintly visible trail leading towards it. Like a fairytale house.

I saw Timothy held his arms securely around his fiancee, just as Calvin did with Yumna. Wolf thing. They were strictly monogamyn, with an extra stress on "strictly".

'So you two are going for the octuplets, I see.' I laughed.

'Yeah, baby.' Tiniecia smiled and brushed Timothy's cheek. 'Ain't no shit, eh?'

'It's amazing.' I grinned.

'Reminds me.' Timothy pointed to me. 'Haneru said you and her 're gonna rash into some bloodsuckers. 'R u sure that's gonna be allrigh'?'

'No.' I answered him blankly, because somewhere deep in my mind, I still hoped he would offer to go along.

'Too bad we can't help ya.' Timothy said, blowing my hopes. 'But I ain't leavin' my wifey. Still, if ya survive, you have to come to our and Yumna's weddin'. There's no way ya'r gonna miss that.'

'If we survive.' I grimaced. That was very helpful and thoughtful of him.

'I'm so lookin' forward to Yumna's lil' pups.' Tiniecia then said. 'I ain't never seen any Asian-Afro breed before, y'know what I'm sayin'?'

'Yeah.' I agreed, and shot her a quick "thank you"-glance before I returned to Yumna, Calvin and Haneru.

'..sure you gonna be able to handle this amount, Calvin? Changing nappies in the middle of the night isn't much fun, right?' I heard my vampire girlfriend ask.

'We're not living in a pack for nothing.' he reminded her. 'All of us are gonna care for the pups. Including Christina, there will be seventeen of them, so it's gonna be hard for us anyway. But we love eachother, we even got names ready.'

I rarely heard him speak, so this rattle surprised me. But since he did not seem to like me, I didn't want to point at it.

'Hah, yeah.' Yumna said. 'This puppy here,' she began, and pointed to a certain point of her belly, 'that's the strongest one. He's got balls, y'know. If he's a boy, he'll be called Garry.'

Haneru gasped in amazement and produced a high-pitched sound. 'You're not naming you're son after my middle name, Yumna, I forbid you.'

Yumna laughed her melodic, beautiful laugh. 'You've got no room to talk, baby. Garry's all mine.'

I looked confused. 'Hane, your name was.. Jagoda Garry Tesla?'

This made her smile lightly. 'Not exactly. Jagoda Garrina Tesla. I'm amazed she remembers that.'

'It's good you came now.' Yumna pointed. 'We're leaving tomorrow.'

'Where to?' Haneru asked curiously.

'Las Vegas. We need help from the elders, they have experienced werewolve-to-werewolve matings and births before. Those are rare nowadays, you know. Most wolves imprint on humans, because female werewolves are going extinct.'

'Imprint?' I asked.

'Find their true love.' Calvin explained. 'Imprinting means looking into someone's eyes, and knowing you'll never, ever want anyone else. With werewolves together, it happens from both sides, of course.'

I nodded. That clarified why these two were always gasping at eachother like a blind man seeing the moon for the first time.

'I'll be finished around the 20th of January.' Yumna whispered to Haneru. 'So don't you dare to die before seeing my kids with your own eyes.'

'But Yumna!' Haneru hissed. 'All together, you guys will have _fourteen_ kids! You have nine pack members and _fourteen _pups!'

'Like Calvin said, we'll handle it.' Yumna answered. 'And they won't stay in our pack forever. Don't even know if they'll ever phase.'

'Of course they will!' Haneru insisted. 'Because you better bet I'll be Aunt Hannie at their every birthday.'

'Werewolves phase only because of vampires?' I asked.

'Yup.' Yumna smiled. 'We're supposed to be enemies. Werewolves are designed to kill vampires, and are the only other species besides of vamps themselves capable of that. I first phased when a vampire entered my hometown in Norway. I was confused, of course, then found Timothy and Tiniecia via the internet. They descend from the same African tribe as me, and offered me a place in their pack in Las Vegas. There, I met Calvin and I never left.'

'And I should note werewolves and vampires smell like hell to eachother.' Haneru grumbled, and squeezed her nose theatrically. 'While of course, they both smell fine to your under-capable human nose.'

I smiled. Yumna laid her super-warm hand on my shoulder. 'You'll be fine. I'm sure.'

'I'm not sure.' I answered her dryly.

* * *

'Six.' Haneru kept repeating, while she drove me home. 'My best friend's getting six babies, all at the same time. Can you believe that?'

'I bet that sets your mother instincts on fire.' I said slowly.

'Yes.' Her head cocked to the side as she processed the change in my tone. 'But a vampire cannot get a baby. Ever.'

'Seriously?' I could hear a small desperation in my voice. 'That's too bad.'

Her still dark black eyes brightened a me and a brief smile flashed across her face. 'It also means no _period_. Not being in pain and all once a month. But why you think it's bad? Did you want to have kids?'

I slumped back in my seat and grinned. 'Maybe, some day.'

She stretched onto her tiptoes to kiss me. 'A guy who likes kids. That is so refreshing.'

One cold hand slid around my waist. 'We can always adopt. Plenty of kids with no parents, if we ever get that far.'

'If we ever get that far.' I grumbled. 'But tell me, why is your eye colour so black? While it was yellow before, while Elizabeth's eyes were red?'

She searched my face for something, but there was nothing but honest curiousity.

'It's black because I'm thirsty.' she finally said. 'Yellow means animal blood. Red.. is human blood. Of course, human blood is the best for a vampire, as vampires only exist to keep the human population under control, like a shark with fish.

'But this shark,' she said, as she pointed at herself, 'likes fish too much because she's been one of them. So she only eats seaweed. It stops her hunger, but she's never fully satisfied. Like a human living on tofu.'

I frowned. 'So technically, I'm like a baby seal having a killer whale for a girlfriend.'

'Yep.' she agreed.

* * *

I could hardly sleep that night. Tomorrow would be the big day of our little mission. If we weren't already too late, that was.

While in my normal life, I was surrounded by constant annoyance. Hikaru's distant glares, though claiming not to care. Shoko and Sakumo's full confidence in the fact Haneru had become pregnant. Erika's fangirlish squeels whenever I talked about school, my other friends joking about my sex life, Melita's cold eyes resting upon me whenever she saw me.

Morning arrived too soon. When I opened the front door of my house, I stepped right into a bright, icy morning. There was less snow then I had thought after the fury of last night's storm. Still, it was freezing cold. The air had a vicious bite to it, but the surroundings were dead calm and silent.

'No birds tomorrow.' I heard Sakumo comment to his wife. 'No idea what caused that.'

'Oh, Sakumo.' I yelled to him. 'You already know Haneru's gonna pick me up in a minute?'

He turned to me. 'Yes. And since it's saturday, take the liberty to do what you want, of course.'

''Kay'. I answered, and I stumbled toward the main road, where a red Ferrari car was parked.

In there was a young woman, dressed in a girly miniskirt, long socks and a cute classic dress, giving her a Harajuku look. 'Don't you think that looks a little bit too cold for today.' I asked her.

She looked down to what she was wearing. 'Oops.'

I could feel that my hair was wild trough my ravaged sleep, twisted into clumps like Medusa snakes.

'But do I look allright?'

'To me, you always look right. Just a little bit too much clothes.' she jokingly said. 'I hate the cold.'

'You wanna see me stumble around half-naked.' I grinned.

'What would you expect.' she smiled back. 'Get in the car.'

When I got in the car, and remembered what we were doing, ice locked around my heart.

And so, we drove, our eyes protected with huge, expensive sunglasses, trough Mashike, to Otaru. In our open car, she in her summer outfit, with her beautiful arms exposed. Add our western features with that, and I couldn't imagine how much we would stand out in this place.

We put the radio on, and listened to some music. Haneru had brought her favorite cd with her, an ancient one by some British singer. Late 1920's, I believed. She had gazillions of cd's, collected over her one hundred and twelve years of extra life.

We reached Otaru quite rapidly. The city was covered in a white blanket of beautiful, pristine snow.

While driving, Haneru made me do some calls with Yumna, about the positions of our enemies. Amazingly enough, the werewolves were able to smell the vampires in Otaru from right where they yet were.

I caught Yumna just before they would leave for Las Vegas, and she told us there were now six vampires in Otaru, including a faint human smell. That alarmed me, as Haneru had only described five vampires.

When I hung up on her, I saw Haneru was muttering "Six. Six babies." to herself again.


	6. Let's Play a Love Game

I had no idea where we were heading, Haneru clearly had. She pulled over and lead the car to the southern parts of Otaru, to a huge Victorian-style villa.

'Are they in there?' I asked and pointed at the marvelous building.

She paused her breathing, her face thoughtful. 'Yes.'

'How do you know?'

'That's the place from where they operated in 2002, too.' she growled, silencing me.

She carefully parked the Ferrari in front of the building's garage, when a dark-skinned man with faint European features sped toward us.

'Hey, Haneru.' His tone was unexpectedly cheerful, but his voice dragged.

I examined his face and red eyes as he opened Haneru's car door for her, like a real gentleman.

Haneru had a vicious expression on her hardened face. 'Good to see you, Sydney.'

It was clear she absolutely didn't find it _good_ to see Sydney.

I eyed him for a moment. 'Hi. I'm Stephen.' I said in a feeble attempt to make a nice first impression.

He matched my friendly tone. 'Pleasure to meet you.'

'Is Claudia allright?' I inquired.

'She's better then she's ever been. No worries.' he said in his relaxed voice.

'I hope so.' Haneru snarled. 'I really do.'

Sydney flinched. 'Always that tone. Why don't you just trust us, Haneru?'

'Trust you?' she repeated, stressing every word. 'Trust? You?'

'Well, if you two would please follow me.' he continued. Haneru moved to me, slid her arm around my waist and held me tight to her side, too tight.

'Okay.' she hissed. 'Okay, here we come.'

We entered a brightly lit, remarkable hall. The walls were shaped in Gothic or late Romantic style, with many 18th-century-resembling paintings on them. Beautiful, flower-shaped chandeliers were spaced evenly along the ceiling. It was very warm in here, for which I was considerably grateful.

Haneru didn't seem to agree with my assessment. She glowered darkly down the hall, pulling me along, toward a short, staring figure at the end.

The figure eyed me as if I was a murderer, with piercing, burgondy irises and a depraved, vicious look.

Her skin appeared pale, though dark olive tanned, and her roundly shaped face was mostly hidden behind dark, black, sleeky hair.

'Haneru.' the woman nodded.

Haneru didn't answer her, or even look at her, but passed quickly trough the statesque doors she held open for us. After Sydney had followed us, she closed the door behind her.

We were now in what appeared to be a tea room; the room was decorated with classic furniture, and there stood a giant, round table around which several French chairs were placed.

Three of the ten chairs were already taken. One by a very dark skinned African male, besides him an Arabic-looking male with curly hair and on the other side of the table, Elizabeth.

'Those are Alek and Shimon.' Haneru puffed in my ear.

'Take a seat, my dear ones.' Shimon said. His voice sounded crippled, like it had been affected by some kind of disease. His skin looked translucent, as thin as it was. I was sure he claimed greater age then human civilization.

'Would you like some tea?' Elizabeth asked me, and held up the teapot. 'And we have baked cookies, too.'

'No thank you.' I protested. 'I'd rather not be poisoned.'

This made Alek laugh. 'That's not the way Elizabeth 'd kill you. And certainly not Tahari's.'

Haneru stared at him, her eyes filled with as much anger as possibly imagineable. 'Don't speak to him.'

'No, speak to me.' I protested. 'Just let them give their reasoning for kidnapping someone who has nothing to do with this. For revenge for something that happened one hundred years ago.'

Tahari drifted away and took a side right in front of me. 'A vampires memory hardly faints, human.'

'But are you sure you would not like some tea?' Elizabeth asked again, sounding honestly interested this time. 'I'm certain your journey hasn't been easy.'

'Just where is the human girl.' Haneru sounded very impatient. 'We have no time nor patience for blabbering.'

'Does this feed your feeling of jealousy, Haneru?' I heard Shimon say in his feathery voice.

'What feeling of jealousy.' she reacted ferociously.

'There, there.' Shimon pointed. 'Don't waste your energy on getting angry, my dear.'

Sydney handed a scale of home-made cookies to our side of the table. 'I'd be pleased if you'd taste them. Cooking has always been my guilty pleasure.'

He shot a glance at Alek, which had Alek smile faintly.

'You made cookies out of her?' I asked.

'Well, no, of course not.' Sydney laughed. 'That human's far too nice. She's been really talkative and such. We really like her.'

'Then I would like to see her.' I told him. Sydney seemed the most trustworthy, while Shimon and the females scared me the most. Alek, who hadn't said anything yet, kept himself in the background, it seemed.

He broke that act when he rose from his chair and strode toward us. 'Only Stephen may follow.'

'I'm no imbecile.' Haneru said in a low voice. 'Do you really think I would let him go alone?'

'None of us will hurt him.' Alek answered her. 'If you don't trust my words, draw Sydney's mind. He's predicting every move of ours, after all, and cannot fake.'

Haneru grabbed a pencil from her skirt's pocket and started to scribble on the beautiful table. None of the vampires seemed to bother.

'Allright.' she said.

That also reassured me, and I walked alongside Alek. He was taller then anyone I had ever seen, standing at a 6"3" frame at least. He opened a door on the other side of the little tea room, and shoved me in. 'She is in here.' he grumbled.

This room was nothing more then a small, modern office, including a desk with a laptop, and a chair behind it. On this chair was a stunning woman, her lightly blonde hair in a fresh ponytail behind her heart-shaped face.

She was wearing beautiful, expensive heels, I saw. I saw her snif her nose as she got up and opened her mouth.

'Stephen?' she asked in utter surprise.

'Yeah. Are you okay?' I asked.

'You smell very good.' she answered, and I noticed her eyes.

Her vivid red eyes, glowing with thirst.

It took me moments to realize the danger, and in a instinctual move, I ducked to avoid her. Of course, that didn't help.

'DON'T!' I yelled at her. 'Don't you realize who I am?'

It didn't help. She smashed me in the wall, I could hear a weird crunching sound coming from my left arm.

'I like to play with my food.' she said, and looked at me, and I knew she wasn't recognizing me anymore.

The door was then kicked open and Haneru came in, walking like a model on her high heeled boots.

'Don't you dare touch MY human.' she spit, and charged at Claudia.

The two started fighting, though Haneru must have known Claudia's potential exceeded her own.

Haneru threw herself forward, Claudia countered by smashing her fist to the front. Haneru had expected this, and ducked, grabbing Claudia's feet, pulling her in mid-air and throwing her in the wall.

'How do you resist?' Claudia hissed, while moving forward to me again. Haneru stopped her by kicking her in the stomach, so Claudia fell backwards and crushed the tiles of the floor.

'I don't feed on humans. Would YOU like it if your life was suddenly taken away, just because some wacko vampire was thirsty?' she exclaimed.

Claudia then rushed forward with, as I could see, more force then a tank, hitting Haneru so hard she fell trough the room's window, shattering it and falling outside. Claudia then came to me again, and prepared to bite my arm, if not Haneru had then slammed her fist in her face.

Yeah, of course it was a little bit different, but technically, two hotter-than-hot model chicks were fighting over me.

It was a difficult battle – Haneru had over hundred years of fighting experience, but Claudia had three times her force and strength. Just one more vampire on her side, and Haneru would win it.

But did I want her to win, to destroy Claudia? Maybe the latter one could come over her newborn madness and return to her normal life, though it would never be normal again. I still cared about her, vampire or not, the fact that she tried to kill me was because of Tahari, not of her.

Haneru grabbed me from the floor and tried to escape with me. 'I can outrun her.' she promised me, but Claudia then grabbed her right foot in her hands and beat her to the ground, which also had me smash to the floor. 'Dang'.' I cursed and rubbed my knee. My jeans were destroyed now. Fashionable.

A kick of adrenaline hit like an electric shock, and everything was suddenly very clear.

This fight was soon getting to a close – though Haneru had her experience, there was no way she could outdo Claudia in any way now, as seen with speed, strength, force.

She needed help; a distraction, something to give her an edge.

I grabbed my father's penknife from my jeans pocket, and raked the point of the shard up my arm.

It was now or never, I thought, and yanked my sweater back to expose my skin.

Then, I let the knife sink in, while not removing my eyes from the fast-moving vampires.

I saw Claudia was distracted by the sound of my gasp, though it was a very little sound.

Her eyes, holding still for one tiny portion of a second, met mine.

Then, that very moment, Claudia had flown out of the blurred formation and smashed into the wall right next to me, breaking trough it. She hopped back to her feet in a blink of an eye, but Haneru was quick to reach her and soon enough, they had once again become a chaotic blur of movements.

A little dazed, I looked up from the bright red blood pulsing out of my arm – trough the hole in the wall, into the fevered eyes of five suddenly ravenous vampires still sitting around the tea table.

'Delish.' Alek whispered.

'Extraordinary smell.' Elizabeth commented.

'That wasn't smart.' Sydney said.

'I guess not.' Shimon agreed.

'I would feel _so_ sorry for Haneru if one of us couldn't resist.' Tahari inclined.

The place was filled with Haneru's piercing shriek of agony.

Claudia got to me, but before she was able to move, Alek had already reached her and knocked her aside.

Tahari kicked the tea table over, breaking all the priceless china. I could see a vicious smile playing around her lips, as she coiled and sprang at me.

My stomach lurched and I flinched instinctly, while Haneru was nowhere to see.

'You promised not to hurt me.' I hissed in Tahari's direction, who was circling around me with extreme speed, waiting for an opening to attack, while of course, I was a walking opening.

'Too bad.' I heard her voice, while I noticed how Elizabeth and Shimon joined her circling.

'Sorry, kid.' Sydney grimaced.

Tahari slumped forward, into a crouch, I recognized. Her evil smile widened, till it wasn't a smile, but nothing but a controtion of glistering, exposed teeth.

She was in front of me; Elizabeth at my side, in the same position, as well as Shimon who was left of me.

I couldn't help my own instincts, I tried to run. As useless and pathetic I knew it to be, panic took over and I bolted for the huge doors we had entered the room trough.

I realized I would be just like all the other people they had ever killed – that Claudia must've also experienced this. More adrenaline rushed trough my body, and my heart stopped in shock as Tahari was in front of me in a flash.

'I didn't think so.' she laughed.

I couldn't see if it really was her foot, but I guessed, when feeling the hard edge of a stiletto heel. A crushing blow struck my chest – I felt myself flying backward, then heard the crunch as I bashed into the already destroyed tea table and shattered porcelain of the tea pot.

I was too stunned to feel the pain, and couldn't even breathe.

'Oh, could you let me do that, too?' Elizabeth asked Tahari casually, in rejoice of torturing me.

I tried to open my mouth and say something, something like, I hadn't deserved this or anything. But I guessed that was no point anyway.

In a last attempt at self defense, as Shimon and Elizabeth slowly approached me, I closed my hand around a sharp shard of porcelain, then tried to get up, failing, scrambling on hands and knees towards the other door.

Elizabeth snapped her finger, and I felt my knees disappearing under me. I fell to the ground and she was over me at once, and I heard a sickening snap when I saw her boot crushing my left arm on the same spot Claudia had.

'Yes, that's my gift. Making one trip by snapping my finger, it is handy, isn't it? That reminds me, Stephen..' she told me pleasantly. 'Would you like Haneru to avenge you? That would make a good opportunity for us to finally destroy that rotting coven of hers.'

Her boot nudged my broken arm and I heard a piercing scream. With a shock, I realized it had been mine.

'No.' I croaked, trying to sound menacingly. 'I don't care about you being vampires, you're the worst people I ever met. You don't deserve to be killed by the likes of Haneru, a worm should do the trick.'

Something smashed into my face, throwing me back to the table.

'Then, since your potential is exactly like a worm's to us, kill us.' Elizabeth prompted.

'Please, Elizabeth.' I heard Shimon. 'Let's not play with our food too much.'

He appeared in front of me, then, while I tried to work myself up once again. His leg hit me, pushing me further into the shattered china with giant force.

Over the pain of my arm, I felt a sharp rip across my stomach where the porcelain cut into it. Warm wetness began to spread over my skin with alarming speed. I could vaguely see it soak the tablecloth.

I crawled up, but as soon as the blonde woman approached me, I had myself slipping away and falling to the ground again.

'I don't like killing men with sixpacks.' Elizabeth laughed. 'A pity she had to choose him for a boyfriend.'

'I'll finish, then.' Tahari spit. Trough my dizziness, I could see that her eyes, vicious and raged before, where now burning with uncontrollable need. No matter how much longer they had intended to 'play' with me, Tahari couldn't draw this out much longer.

The faces of people I cared for started to show for my eyes as I blackened out.

Shoko, Erika. My parents. Sakumo, Hikaru, Reon, Chen. Haneru, several times. Claudia. The image of our baby.

I felt a sharp stab in my side. That couldn't possibly be heaven, I thought and reopened my eyelids.

'_Stai bene_? You okay?' an angel asked me.

Malia?

'I think he's lost quite some blood.' I heard another voice. 'It's not like you to break your promises, Tahari.'

'Is Haneru there?' I asked with a trembling voice.

'Not yet.' the compassive male voice answered me. 'Fabulous. We'll pull off something of a fight, I guess.'

I finally worked myself up succesfully, to see the three vampires opposing us.

'Don't get yourselves killed for me.' I told the two vampires before me. 'What are you doing here anyway?'

'We followed Haneru.' Serge answered. 'None of us told Melita.'

He turned to me. 'Oh, Malia asked me to tell you that she does care about you, as you're her sister's boyfriend. And that you should leave it all to her.'

Malia prepared herself and snarled, teeth exposed, at Tahari, Elizabeth and Shimon.

'I think we should be very scared.' Elizabeth said with a grim smile. 'Malfunctioning is coming for us.'

'_What _did you call me?' Malia grumbled, with a thick Italian accent over her English.

'You fat, dumb, worthless, malfunctioning scum.' Elizabeth answered her, still sporting that annoying grin.

That triggered Malia.

A broken hissing noise came trough her teeth, sounding like snickering, when in another second, Haneru was right next to her.

'Elizabeth.' Haneru snarled. 'Tahari. Shimon.'

Malia launched herself forward with the force of a wrecking ball. The thrust carried both Haneru and her towards the vampires, and half a second later, a metallic screeching matched with Malia pushing Elizabeth right trough the tiles of the floor, before the latter could even _think_ of snapping her finger.

Tahari and Shimon sped forward, both aiming for me, but in a rapid instinctive movement, I felt myself jumping up the leftover piece of the table. The wobbly piece collapsed initially, so that I slid forward, but Haneru caught me and shoved us to the side, away from Shimon and Tahari's teeth.

Elizabeth seemed to be realizing she was on her own against Malia. She began to back away from the enraged girl, with frenzied surprise blazing in her eyes. She threw me one short, agonized stare of longing, then started to retreat to the big doors faster.

'Oh no, beach.' Malia yelled. 'You is staying JUS' A LITTLE LONGER!'

The loud sound of her voice pierced my ears as if it were nails on a school bord.

Elizabeth performed a salto and flew toward the office room Claudia had been in. 'Malia.' she hissed. 'Do leave me alone, now.' She snapped her finger, and Malia fell to her knees.

She speeded into the room like an arrow from a bow.

But Malia had had only advantage of starting off the ground. She was way, _way_ faster – like a bullet from a gun. She caught Elizabeth's unprotected back and moved to her neck.

I forced my eyes back to Haneru, who was fighting off Shimon and Tahari.

Then, a piece of stone hit the ground right before my feet. It smashed hard, it smashed trough a tile, then rolled more toward me, and had me looking in Elizabeth's sadistic eyes.

Malia gripped the ripped off head away from me, threw it into a pile of flames I saw at the corner of the room.

In shock, I realized she was killing Elizabeth.

Not like I cared.

But Malia wasn't my ally.

She was just here to protect Haneru, and Haneru was just protecting me so she could have my delicious blood.

No matter what Serge said, this truth hit me hard.

Well, if it were like that, what stood in my way to just let one of them drink my blood? That way, I could nail her ass.

Serge's ice cold arm held me back once again. 'Don't fall for that. That's Shimon using his gift.' he hissed.

Fall for what, I thought.

'We need to get you to the hospital. Right away.'

'No.' I protested. ' There is no way that's going to happen.'

'Right.' Haneru said, and got to me. 'We really do need to get away now, Stephen.'

'If you say so.' I groaned, and felt my distrust slip away.

'I say so. There are five vampires here waiting to kill me and you, including one crazed newborn.'

'Haneru!' I heard another voice yell.

Tahari was stroding toward Haneru at human speed.

Haneru's face was then drawn. I watched her eyes as her panick about me was suddenly replaced with a blazing anger. Her jaw tightened, and I could feel her cool, strong fingers tightening around my hand.

'Don't say anything.' I managed to bring out, looking at the dark-haired, short vampire. 'You unbelievable piece of earth's worst scum.'

The outrage in my voice was pitifully frail. 'Why are you doing this?'

Tahari's fierce eyes locked on my face. Unlike Elizabeth, I had never seen her laugh, even sadistically, for even a second. 'You don't know anything, young one.' she hissed.

I grabbed my broken leg, and worked myself from the ground, until I was kind of standing on my feet.

While confronting Tahari, I had to look down, as she was at least three feet shorter then me.

But I still had that porcelain shard in my hand, and in my uncontrollable anger, moved forward to attack her.

The second my hand had moved toward her, an icy hand had stopped it and kicked me back; again, I felt my conciousness slip while my frustration for my weakness became stronger.

'We need to get away right now.' I heard Haneru's beautiful voice say.

I looked, and saw the other vampires were still mingling. 'But..' I started, then she shut me up. 'Wait.'

She stiffened her position once again. 'Wait, and stay very still.'

I noticed a figure coming in trough the enormous doors. The figure was a young man, not very tall, Japanese, with messy black hair, wearing a black suit.

'Why do you want me to stay still if a human is walking in here.' I whispered, horrified at what I was certain to happen now.

The man spoke, very loudly and clear.

'With all to your respect.' he said. 'I have an announcement to all the vampires here.'

All of them stopped moving, turned and watched the man's face anxiously.

A strange gleam came into Haneru's eyes, as though something horrible had just occurred to her. 'I was right.'

She turned to me quickly, once again hissing I should keep very still.

'_Damn_.' Serge muttered under his breath. 'How did they notice so quickly?'

I wondered if any of them could truly be worried about one human noticing them.

'What is it?' I whispered, when the man opened his mouth again.

'As you may have expected, the Jiang Shi have decided they need to do clean-up.' he spoke, then turned around and strode away.

'Fuck.' Haneru hissed. 'Fuck, fuck, fuck.'

It was absolutely silent for two dragging seconds, before Haneru got to Serge and Malia. 'We need to warn Melita. Immediately.'

Then, she turned back to me. 'Stephen. Have my mobile phone and call the alarm number. You need help right now, but there's nothing more I can do. You need to get medical care, but we need to flee.'

I shook my head in confusion. 'Why? When will I see you again?'

'I don't know!' she said with a panicky edge. 'But-'

'Every second counts, Haneru, he'll be alright, but Melita won't if we don't hurry.'

'Yeah', she nodded, and I saw how every other vampire had fled.

She bent forward and crushed herself into my lips, giving me a passionate goodbye, then throwing herself back, getting up, screaming that she loved me and rushing away.

With their inhumane speed, all of the vampires had left the building within one second.

A clean break.

I was dizzy and it was hard to concentrate, as I took the situation in. I was still in this old building, where everything was completely ravaged. Walls had been broken down, tables and china smashed into pieces, and most significant, I was still surrounded by a whole lot of blood.

I wanted to get up a second time, run after where the vampires had gone, wherever that was. Why did they leave me here, like this? What could've caused that?

With shaky legs, I tried to work myself on my feet, but it proved impossible.

Then, I reached for Haneru's pink Hello Kitty-cell phone and dialed the emergency number, 119.

The bright, white light that shone in my eyes was so getting on my nerves. For all I knew, I had been brought here at 1 PM, but it felt like I had been here for ages.

An annoying beeping sound sounded somewhere close by, telling me I was still alive, probably.

I was propped up on a hard, uneven bed, a bed with rails.

'Do you have an insurance, sir?' a cool female voice asked me. I turned my head slightly and a nurse's cute face was just inches from mine. I saw light blushes on her cheeks.

'My host parents do.' I answered her. 'Though I do am Japanese.'

'Could you tell us what happened after your emergency call? Then I'll get the doctor for you.'

I couldn't remember too clearly, but I agreed.

Minutes later, a doctor arrived. He was an old, seemingly wise man with short-cut, black hair.

'So you are no illegal refugee, sir?' he asked me in crappy English.

I tried to sit up, but the spinning in my head accelerated, and the nurses' hand gently pushed me down in the pillow. 'No, sensei.' I answered his question in Japanese. 'I must have my Japanese passport somewhere around here.'

'Good. Then if you could explain to me what caused you to land here?'

He was talking as if he was accusing me of a crime.

I sighed. I could indeed clearly feel my left arm hurt, and I still felt very weak. 'My girlfriend and I were driving to Otaru, to friends.' I started out my lie. 'Then, after visiting our friends, I tripped and fell to the floor. It was a marble floor, so pretty bad, yeah. But my girlfriend had a very important appointment in America and had to leave. I believed I was alright, so I told her I'd stay with the friends and have them call 119. But when I was about to walk back in, I collapsed again, and called right there. Though my memory's blurred, I don't remember everything.'

'Hmm.' the doctor said. He didn't seem confident with that explaination. 'Then I guess your insurance will pay.'

He grabbed some papers from the table, while he looked away from my wandering eyes. 'What happened to you, according to your chart: one broken bone in your lower left arm, blood loss, a minor internal bleeding in your stomach. You made off quite good, but make sure to be very careful in the future. We will not always be able to repair you.'

With this, he walked away. If only he had known what had really caused this.


End file.
